This chapter's based on Morality Bites, the episode in series 2, I think it is. It's setting us up 4 future chatpers, so bare wi me ...
Chapter 19 - Morality Bites
"What did you buy?" Paige asked as I walked into the kitchen, a week or so later.
"Doody." I replied, lifting my shoe up.
"We weren't out of that." Prue joked.
"No, I stepped in it again. That man has turned our front walk into a puppy mine field." I replied.
"I can not believe that guy still let's his dog do his business right in front of our house." Paige moaned.
"Yeah, well, we've left notes." Prue shrugged.
"And gotten no where." I replied.
"Yeah, well, I've had it. The next time I catch him in the act, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind." Phoebe said, as Paige nodded in agrre ment. We all looked at each other as we heard a dog barking.
"It couldn't be." Paige stated.
"Oh, I hope it is." Phoebe said as we ran towards the living room.
"That's them. That's the guy and his dog. I can't believe it." I said.
"That is so rude. He's just gonna walk away." Prue said angrily.
"Then don't let him. Use your magic. Well, if you can't teach the dog new tricks, how about the owner. Just think the money we'd save on carpet cleaning alone." Phoebe said suddenly.
"Phoebe, we can't use our magic just to teach him or anybody else a lesson." Prue said firmly.
"Why not? It's for the greater good, I mean, I mean, that's our job, right? Think of it as community service. We'd be doing our whole block a favour. Come on." She replied, opening a window. "Okay, Piper."
"I hope he's not out of my range." I replied, freezing him.
"Prue ..." Prue flicked her hand reluctantly.
"Nice shot." Paige commented.
He unfroze.
"An eye for an eye, a shoe for a shoe." Phoebe murmered. The guy looked down and tried to wipe his shoe, looking around.
"Ooh!" We said together, ducking out of sight.
"Did he see you?" Prue hissed. Did she think he could hear us?
"So what if he did?" Phoebe said confidently. "What's he gonna do? Cry witch?"
We peeked back out the window in time to see him walk off.
"Well, we've done our good deed for the day." Paige said.
"I think I deserve fifteen minutes of channel surfing." Phoebe smiled.
Prue and I started walking into the kitchen, when we heard a gasp, and Paige asking Phoebe if she was OK.
"Phoebe?" Prue asked as we ran back in. She was gasping for breath, shaking.
"Take a deep breath, honey, it's alright." I said calmly.
"No, it's not." She gasped. "I saw my future. I was being executed. Burnt alive."
Fifteen minutes later we had the full, horrible story.
Why would a report about a baseball player trigger a premonition like that?" I asked.
I don't know. All I know is I could feel it, I could feel the fire." Phoebe said. Her voice was still shakey.
"And we were just standing there? That can't be right." Paige said confidently.
"That's what I saw." Phoebe replied, avoiding our eyes. Did she blame us?
"There's no way that we would let that happen, not in the past, present or future." Prue said firmly.
"What did I do? Or what is it that I'm going to do?" Phoebe asked, looking up at us. She looked so ... vunerable.
Leo orbed in. Prue opened her mouth, but, sensing Phoebe didn't want him to know, I said loudly "Hey, stranger."
Prue took the hint and turned away.
"Is that what I am now?" Leo asked.
"Playing hooky?" I asked.
"No, they're making me work tonight so I've got the afternoon off." He replied, hugging me. My husband was hugging me.
Ha.
If it wasn't for Phoebe's premonition, I'd be blissfully happy.
But we had to sort this whole thing out.
Blissful happiness could wait.
"The old 'I gotta save the world' excuse again?" I asked. I could almost see Prue rolling her eyes, wanting to run to the book.
"Like you've never had to use it." Leo replied.
"Ahh..." I said slowly.
"You're about to use it." Leo sighed.
"Well, there's just something I have to do. Maybe you could ..." He looked up at the ceiling as I trailed off.
"Now?" He said to the ceiling.
"Uh ... Leo?"
"It's okay, uh, you go. There's actually something I have to take care of." He said distractedly.
He leaned in and we kissed. He orbed out halfway through.
"I hate when he does that." I said aloud.
"Book?" Prue asked. I nodded. "Lets go."
"So what did he want?" Prue asked as we climbed the stairs.
"He cancelled our date. He's working again." I replied. We walked into the attic. The pages of the book were flipping on their own. They do that offten, actually. Grams does it, or mum, I think.
"You didn't ask him what to do?" Paige asked.
"He had to fly ... literally. The pages were doing that flipping thing on their own again." I replied.
"It's a spell to take us to the future." Prue remarked, standing over the book.
"Two actually." I replied, joining her. "One to send us, one to bring us home. But apparently we only get one shot. Once we use it they disappear."
"Are yoiu sure this is a good idea?" Phoebe asked nevously. We looked at her, each weraing identical 'Duh!' faces.
"I'm just saying I think we should think this over a little bit." Phoebe said, biting her lip lightly.
"Look, you had that premonition today for a reason. It must mean that we're supposed to do something about it. And going to the future might be the only way to find out what you did to put you on that pyre." Prue pointed out.
"How do you know it's something that she did? I mean, it might be a demon or a warlock that puts her there." Paige said.
"Do you really want to wait to find out? Okay, pack your bags, we go, try to figure out what happened and hopefully come back with enough information to stop it. We're gonna need a date, Phoebe."
"February 12, 2009. That's two weeks before the date I saw in my premonition." Phoebe suplied.
"Alright, that should give us more than enough time to figure out what put you there." Paige nodded.
"I wonder how I look?" I said, thinking aloud.
"Piper, you look great but this is hardly the time ..." Paige replied.
"Not now. In the future. I mean, we'll be seeing ourselves walk around ten years older. All that vanquishing. Think of the wear and tear."
"Okay." Prue said, lighting a match. She burned the paper slowly. "Hear these words, hear the rhyme."
"We send to you this burning sign." I continued.
"Then our future selves will find." Phoebe added.
"In another place and time." Paige finished.
"Mummy, mummy, mummy." A child's voice swan threw my head as the world swan into focus.
Patty?
No, the little girl running towards me is blonde, and Patty's hair is dark.
"Uh, I think you have the wrong house. Certainly the wrong mummy." I said gently.
"Stop fooling." She laughed, then hugged me.
Wait. Now I look at her ... Leo. I can see his eyes ... his nose ... and the blonde hair ...
Leo adn I have a daughter? And soon, apparetly. She looks about eight, nine.
I car honks, interrupting my thoughts.
"Car pool." The little girl said. "Patty!" She cried, running off.
I walked slowly to the mirror. My hair is longer, cruly, but it's definetly me.
"Ooh." I turned to see a report about Phoebe show up on the TV. "Phoebe. Where's the volume?" I mutter. I looked around for remote, but the sound gets louder by itself.
"More news on the execution of Phoebe Halliwell coming up in just a moment. Now back to your regular scheduled programming MTV's real world eighteen on the moon." I looked around, trying to see how the sound got turned up.#
"Mum, we're gonna be late." A voice said. The girl from before was stood in the doorway. And ...
Patty.
She looked more like me, of course. She'd never really looked like Dan, thank god. Her hair was dark, her eyes brown.
"Okay, uh, TV shut up. Mute. Something." I muttered, walking to the door and opening it.
"Morning, Piper. You alright?" The woman on the doorstep beamed.
"I guess ..." I replied.
"Yeah, with your sister, it's rough, I know. So, don't worry about your little one. I'll get her to school like you asked but uh, are you sure you want me to take her to your ex's?"
What?
"Ex? As in husband? As in mine? Yes, if that is what I told you, then yes."
"So, you and him are getting along better now?"
"Maybe. Prue? Paige?" I yelled, looking around.
"Okay, let's hit the road." The woman said, giving me a strange look.
Both girls hugged me.
"Don't worry, mummy." The little girl whispered. "I promise I'll do what you ask. I won't use my magic again ever.
"Me niether." Patty smiled.
I went outside to watch them drive off. A limo pulls up. Prue - complete with dyed blonde hair - and some other people get out of the limo. The others fuss over her, brushing and touching her.
Prue has a limo?
"Hey, hey. Okay, enough! People stop touching me. Stay, stay, stay." Prue said loudly. The people fell back as she walked up the stairs.
"Prue, what's going on?" I asked.
"I don't know, but I could really get used to this. Check me out. I don't just work at Bucklands, I own it. And three more. Paris, Tokyo and London."
"And you're blonde." I pointed out.
"Yeah, strange." Prue shrugged.
"Wait, you had time to go to work already?" I asked suddenly.
"Well, actually, I woke up there but it was amazing. I had all these assistants and this huge office and I have a chauffeur and he's so totally hot. How'd you do?" She asked brightly. I laughed, unsure what to say. "Is that a good thing or ...?"
We walked inside.
"Well, if you ignore my apparently failed marriage and the fact that I still live in the manor." I replied.
"You are married?"
"Was." I replied, a slight pang in my insides. Was? No way.
"Patty and my other daughter are on their way -"
"Wait. Stop right there. You have another daughter?"
"Yeah, and, and, and she's beautiful." I said, picking up a photo of the two girls nearby.
"Of course she is. What's her name?"
"Oh God. I don't know." I said, biting my lip. "But she has powers. But for some reason I told them not to use them. Why would I do that?"
"Speaking of why ... Why are we in our future bodies? I mean, I thought we were supposed to come here and see them."
"Well, apparently not. I just wish that since we are in our future bodies that we could have some memory of what's happened in the last ten years, like how I got a daughter." And how Leo and I split up.
"Okay, wait a second, if I'm in my future body and you are in your future body then that means that Phoebe ..." She trailed off looking at the TV.
"TV ... louder, louder." I said, turning around.
"... execution is less than eight hours away until the burning of Phoebe Halliwell. The witch accused of murdering Cal Greene six months ago.
Eight hours? We were supposed to be here two weeks before." I gasped.
"Let's go there now live where Sierra Stone is standing by. Sierra ...San Francisco district attorney, Nathaniel Pratt, who's discovery of the witch last August, has made an early favour for the governor's seat, just came out to make a statement. Let's listen in."
Nathaniel smirked at the camera. "This is a reflection of our citizens resolved to fair it out, the hidden evil. To turn fear into fight, and to band together as one. To cleanse our city of its greatest threat. Tonight, Phoebe Halliwell will burn for her crime. In which she does, let that be a warning to other witches out there. You're next."
I shivered.
"Paige!" Prue yelled.
Our youngest sister orbed in, looking around at us. Her hair was longer, adn I was sure I saw a wedding ring on her finger.
"I'm a social worker, for real." She beamed. "It's amazing, I -"
"Paige, honey, something went wrong with the spell." Prue said carefully.
"We came eight hours before, not two weeks."
"Oh."
"Oh, surprise. Here we go, up the stairs, into the attic, grabbing the Book of Shadows, please tell me we're not gonna be doing this in ten years." Prue sighed.
"Apparently not." I replied.
"What?"
"The book is gone." Paige muttered.
"It's got to be here, we need it to find the return spell." Prue panicked.
"Prue ..."
"Piper, just help me look for it." Prue said, turning around.
"Okay, relax, we'll find it." Paige told her.
"You don't know that. I mean, what if it's lost, what if we can't find it? Then we're stuck in our future bodies with no way of getting out of them and no way of saving Phoebe." She flicks her arm and destroys the attic.
"Ooh! Been working out?" I joked.
"I guess that's a little sample of what ten years does to our powers." Prue replied.
"And to our attic." I added, looking around. "Wait ..." I saw a key underneath an overturned table. "A key." I held it up.
"It's the key to my wall safe at Bucklands." Prue frowned.
"Do you think that means it's there? We've never taken the book out of the house before." Paige said.
"Yeah, we haven't but maybe our future selves have. The question is why?" Prue replied, still frowning slightly.
"We don't even know what we're like in this time, Prue, let alone what we think. But if the book is at Bucklands, maybe it'll give us some answers." I said. "Lets go."
"Alright, then we'll go there first, then to Phoebe to see if she's alright." We walked towards the door. "Sorry about the mess." She said.
"Mmm hmm."
Is she expecting me to clean it?
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at Bucklands.
"I can't believe you get a limo and a driver and I've still got my same old car." I said. Paige nodded.
"And Buckalnds."
"You have a husband." She said. "And you." She said to Paige, who blushed and tried to hide her hand.
"I don't know who, though." She replied.
"Had a husband. I'm getting divorced remember. And how do you know you don't have a guy in this time? I mean, after all, I have another kid and an ex, you could have several." I added.
"Ex's?"
No, kids. I mean, we're in the future but with no memory of the past ten years. I don't even know ... " I trailed off.
A guy holding a cup of coffee bumps into someone and I frozes him automatically. We looked around. Everything is frozen.
Okay, apparently my power isn't the only one that's grown. You just froze ..."
"Everything." I replied, speechless. "What a difference a decade makes.
"What the hell are you doing?" A familiar voice rang outr. I turned around, to see Leo striding towards us.
"Leo, I'm so glad you're here. I have so many ..." I went to hug him but he backed away. "Uh ... what's wrong?
"You know, I knew you'd do something stupid like this. You used you magic in public. What's the matter with you? Are you insane?" He snapped.
"Uh, Leo ..." I said slowly. What was wrong with him?
Oh, yeah. We're seperated. And he doesn't know I'm not ... myself ...
"Remember he thinks we know what's going on." Paige said.
"You wanna end up like your sister? Huh? We had an agreement. No using magic for Melinda's sake."
"Melinda?"
"Our daughter. What's wrong with you?"
Ah. Melinda. My mistery daughter.
Before I could say anything else, a woman walks around the corner and sees everything frozen.
"Witch!" She yelled.
Uh-oh.
"Okay, what's going on here?" Prue said angrily.
"Prue ..."
All around us are posters - Rid the Evil, Turn in Witches.
"Over there! Witch!" The woman yelled,k as everyone unfroze.
Alright, hurry, we gotta get outta here before they see you." Leo said quickly.
"They?" Paige questioned.
"The witch hunters." He replied.
"Leo, listen to me. The three of us, the Prue, Paige and Piper that you see before you are from the past. From ten years ago." Prue tried to explain.
"So, we have no idea what is going on." I added.
"Don't even lie to me. Right, Phoebe is set to die today and I only hope that this madness dies with her. Right, these people are in danger because of the witch trials she started."
"How? How did she start them?" Paige asked.
"You know, I don't know what you hope to accomplish by pretending not to know ..." Suddenly hit by and idea, I kissed him.
"You haven't kissed me like that since ..."
"Since this morning. 1999, remember? We were supposed to meet, you had to leave, I went up to the attic and this is where I came, the future. If you don't believe me, at least believe what you feel, trust that." I told him.
"I remember that was the day they sent me up to the attic to open the Book of Shadows, the future spell." He murmured.
"Wait, that was you? We just assumed it was Grams."
"No, it was me. They didn't tell me why. What, you don't know what's happened the last ten years?" Prue shakes her head. "These people, they're here underground because they've been accused of practicing witchcraft."
"They're witches?" Paige asked.
"Some of them. Most of them have been falsely accused. They're safe here for now."
"What did Phoebe do?"
"Six months ago she killed a man. Cal Greene." He said quietly.
"The baseball player?" I asked, confused.
"This is crazy. I mean, Phoebe would never hurt anyone." Paige said, shaking her head.
"She hurt him because he murdered someone. Someone Phoebe cared about very much. A dear friend who he brutalized. But a technicality set him free. Phoebe was furious, outraged. And that's when she crossed the line from protecting the innocent to punishing the guilty. She used her power to kill Greene, got caught, and her magic exposed by Nathaniel Pratt."
"And this is the result modern day witch trials with Pratt at the helm?" Paige gaped.
"And Phoebe at the stake. I don't buy it. Her power can't kill."
"Well, it can now. It's been ten years. All your powers have grown."
"We have to get to Phoebe and explain." I muttered.
"You can't. Alright, as it stands, you and Prue are safe. Pratt checked you out and he doesn't suspect you're witches. To get to Phoebe you'd have to use your powers and then they'll catch you then kill you."
"Leo, she's our sister. We're not gonna let her die." Paige told him.
"Wait, I'll go." I said.
"Leo, this is our sister. We have to." Prue said.
No. I'm still your guide. I can orb in and keep you out of danger."
"Fine. Then we'll go back to Buckland's and get the book and get the spell to get us home. We'll meet you back at the manor." Paige told him.
One little problem.
The spell's gone. Our future selves have already used it.
"You wanna tell me how screwed we are?" Paige muttered.
Pretty screwed." Prue replied.
Thanks. I wonder what's taking Leo so long?"
"Some of the pages are marked. The top corners are turned down and all of them are new spells." I murmered.
"Such as?" Paige asked.
"Like, here's a spell to create a door, one to induce slumber, a glamour to change ones appearance. Some of them have these baggies attached."
"Potions?" Paige suggested.
"But what about these? Okay, one to create money, to bend someone's will, to erase a memory, a binding spell." I read.
What are all these marked for?" Prue asked.
"This must of been our future selves plan to break Phoebe out. But something is bothering me. Clearly some of these spells are for personal gain."
"Which would break the most basic of wiccan rules. We wouldn't do that." Paige said.
"We wouldn't. But maybe in ten years our future selves would." I murmured.
Leo walked in.
"Perfect timing. We found the book but we can't ... Where's Phoebe?" I asked confused, again.
"Where is she?" Paige asked.
"She's in prison where she belongs." He said.
"Leo, you were supposed to bring her back here." Prue snapped.
"No, I said I'd go to her. And I did. To explain to her why she has to pay for her crime." He replied.
You're our guide, you're supposed to protect us and you're just gonna let her die!" Paige cried.
"You're signing her death warrant!" Prue added.
"I'm to protect the greater good. If Phoebe lives, if you use your magic to save her, then the persecutions will continue. And our daughters will grow into a world where her powers punishable by death. Do you want that?"
"Of course not." He referred to Patty as his. Unless we have another secret daughter. That's kinda nice.
"Well, then it has to end with Phoebe. She has to die." He said gently.
"Like hell." Prue snapped, as I froze him.
"Relax. We've seen what your new powers can do when you're angry." I warned.
"He's gonna stay frozen right?" Paige asked.
If he knows what's good for him, he'll stay frozen." I replied.
"Alright, let's get the spell."
"Piper, if you're gonna do this, you'd better hurry." Prue told me. "Leo can unfreeze and be home any second. Besides, Phoebe has less than an hour."
I nodded, got out of the car. I looked through a window and saw Melinda and Patty playing. I looked down at the binding spell I'm holding. Leo appears
"You can't do it can you?" He said quietly.
"No. Our grandmother did it to us for protection." I replied.
"You don't have to bind her powers, Piper. We agreed that I'd take care of her and I will, I promise."
"I know you will. So ... What happened to us?"
"We were happy, until all this happened. Magic couldn't help Phoebe, and that strained us. The Elders told me if I wanted to continue being a whitelighter, we had to split us, otherwise we risked whitelighters being expesed. We argued, adn you told me to go. I ... went." He finished. "You told me not to come back.
"Were we happy?"
"Very." He said quietly.
"Maybe we can change all this ... when we go back ..."
"I hope so." He whispered.
"Are you gonna try and stop us?" I asked.
"I can't do that."
"I hope you understand why I have to do what I'm doing." I said softly.
Yeah."
"What are we gonna do?"
"What we always do. Talk about it later."
I got back into the car.
"Let's go get Phoebe."
So far so good." Prue said as we walked towards the building.
Normal people usually break out of prison." I replied.
Nothing about this is normal." Paige sighed.
"To create a door, okay." I muttered.
"No place like here." Prue shrugged.
Okay." I drew an imaginary door on the wall with my finger.
Kinda small for us dontcha think?" Prue asked. I rolloed my eyes. "When you find your path is blocked, all you have to do is knock." Prue read. I knocked. The door opens and we walk inside.
"Freeze!" I guard yelled.
"Good idea." I froze him.
"Alright, um, the cell should be up those stairs, come on. She'll be guarded, are you ready for this?" Paige asked.
"Do we have a choice?" I replied.
Phoebe's cell is empty.
"We're too late." Prue whsipered.
I love the smell of burnt witch in the morning." A mans voice was saying, as we walked into a room where Pheebs was tied to a pole.
"At least I'm paying for my crime. There'll come a day where you have to pay for yours too." Phoebe spat.
"Remorseless to the end, huh." He turned to the people watching. "Let today be a lesson to all those who would seek to defy human nature with their way of life. Let today serve notice that black magic will not be tolerated in our society and let today be remembered as the day we burned the witch."
"Piper, freeze them." Prue commanded. I did so.
Prue, Piper, Paige." Phoebe breathed.
"We're getting you outta here." Prue assured her, untiing her.
"No, wait. You can't Prue, I'm serious." Phoebe said.
What are you talking about?" Paige said, shaking her head.
"You guys have to leave. I deserve to be here. Or my future self does. I killed someone."
"You killed a killer. Don't be ridiculous."
"Look, this is Pratt's personal crusade. This isn't about us, this is about him. Where ever we go, he will follow us. He will hunt us. He will hunt our families. If anybody should be punished, it should be him." Prue said, raising her arm.
"Prue, what are you doing?" Phoebe asked weirily.
"Saving the future good witches and our future." Prue said.
Prue, wait! Don't become a murderer too. It has to end with me." Phoebe said quietly.
"Phoebe, he was evil, he deserved what you ..." I told her. She started to cry silently.
"Wrong things done for the right reasons still the wrong thing. Our job is to protect the innocent, not punish the guilty. And I crossed that line, I know that. And now you guys have to know that too."
We were all crying by then.
"We are not leaving here without you." Paige said.
"We were sent here for a reason. Maybe not to stop this like we thought. But maybe to understand why this has to happen. Why you have to let this happen. I don't want to die. But I don't want you to die because of me." We all hugged. "I love you."
She stands back next to the pole. Everyone unfreezes. They turn on the flames ...
And I was back in the manor.
"Prue ... Phoebe, Paige?" I called.
"What are we doing here?" Prue asked as Paige looked around.
"Phoebe? You don't think she was ... we saw ..." I trailed off.
"I know. Oh, please God, don't let it be true. Phoebe!" Thankfully, Phoebe walks in the room. We hugged.
"We thought that we lost you." Paige said.
"You did. I was burned. And I could, I could feel the flames on my skin. And then I was here. I don't know what happened."
"It's okay, you're safe now, you're home." Prue said softly.
"You're home, but when?" I turned on the TV. The report about Cal Greene comes on.
"Wait, that's the baseball player. That's what triggered my premonition. We're right back where we started. The day we cast a spell."
"Why?" Paige asked.
"Maybe because it worked. We were sent into the future to find out what Phoebe did. We came back to stop it from happening." Prue shurgged.
"But we didn't cast a spell to come back. We didn't even have one." Paige pointed out.
Maybe they sent us back."
"The Elders? Why today? If we were sent back to keep the future from happening, shouldn't we be sent back to the day Phoebe killed Cal Greene instead?"
A dog barked.
"Not again." The guy's dog squats on our path.
"This guy still hasn't learnt his lesson." Paige sighs. We walked towards the window.
"Apparently neither have we." Phoebe said. We turned around. "I think this is why we were sent back here to this moment and time. This is where it all started. The first time we used our magic for revenge."
"But it's just a little thing, it's harmless." I said.
"Yeah, but once you break the small rules, it's only a matter of time before the big ones are next."
Form some reason I thought of Dan.
He broke the smaller rules when he hit me, and the bigger ones when he ... you know ... shot me ...
"A very smart girl once told me that we were supposed to protect the innocent not punish the guilty." Prue smiled.
"I haven't told you yet." Phoebe smiled.
Maybe you won't have to." Paige said quietly. I turned back to the window, saw the face of the guy.
Pratt." Prue mumbled.
"Do you think it was us that started the witch trials?" I asked.
"Probably ..." Prue nodded.
"We should keep an eye on him." Phoebe said.
"Absolutly." Paige agreed.
Leo orbed in.
"Hello, stranger." I smiled
"Is that what I am now?" He joked.
"No. And don't ever be one. The girls and I are going to need you."
"The girls?"
Oops.
"Lets just say ... we've had an ... experiance. And one day ... well, maybe Patty wont be an only child ..."
I grinned at his confusion.
One day.
One day soon, maybe? Review n let me no what you think ...
Also, do you guys want me to kill Prue and/or Andy, or would you rather keep them alive? And do you want me to make Cole become the source like in the show?