Chapter Eleven
Get Out
When Leo looked over at Phoebe and Piper, the two of them began frantically signaling to him.
"Come here Leo," Piper whispered, mostly for the sake of accurately mouthing the words.
Leo gave a hesitant look at Paige and Kayla, but then stood up and walked over.
"What?" He asked quietly upon arrival.
"We have an idea and it won't work with you sitting there." Phoebe said quickly, and started looking past Leo to see if Paige was having the instant effect on Kayla she'd hoped for.
"What are you guys thinking?"
"That maybe Paige can through to her by relating to her parent's death," Piper said simply, also looking beyond Leo and at Paige.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Leo's tone clearly said that he didn't.
"I don't see why not," Piper said, but Leo's concern concerned her. "Why do you ask?"
"Well we can't guarantee that Kayla remembers-" he was cut off as Chris orbed in and immediately started talking.
"None of this ever happened." He said quickly.
"Didn't we already discuss this?" Piper asked dully.
"What color was the car?"
"Huh?" Chris's question didn't exactly answer Pipers.
"The car accident. What color was the car?"
"Red. Chris, what are you getting at?" Phoebe answered.
"The other day when I was looking for that demon," as he spoke he pointed at Kayla.
Phoebe opened her mouth to tell off Chris ("She's not a demon Chris! She's an innocent!"), but Piper gave her a silencing look.
"I crossed the street, and some idiot in a red car started blaring his horn because the little old lady in front of him made him miss the light. I think that if I wasn't there, he wouldn't have missed the light, and then he wouldn't have been there," he pointed to the front of the house. "So she wouldn't have been there," he pointed dramatically into the living room.
"Chris there are four different red cars on this street alone, what makes you think—"
"Did you see the license plate?" Phoebe said, ignoring Piper.
"Um..." Chris rolled his eyes into his head thinking. "I think it was one of those vanity plates... Hotdog or something."
The sisters exchanged a significant look.
Chris caught the small movement. "See! I told you! None of this happened before!"
"Chris, some of us don't know what happens twenty years in the future, so do you think you could fill us in?" Phoebe snapped, she was harsher than she meant to be, but it got Chris to the point.
"History doesn't show Kayla being here, atleast not for long."
"Chriiis..."
"Alright, alright. History shows one Phobius Leach showed up, and Piper blew it up."
"Just like it happened the other day?"
"Exactly like it happened. And shortly after the first one showed up, a second one appeared, again the same way. But that's where the similarities end." Chris paused dramatically and earned three dirty looks. "Piper blew up the second one exactly the same way again. A week later a third one came, only this time when Piper tried to blow it up, it ducked and dodged as if it knew what technique you were going to use. You finally blew it up, and this was when the three of you caught a view of the leach in its ghastly form, and were able to identify it as what it was, and you realized it was the same demon that kept coming back."
"So what happened differently this time?" Phoebe asked slowly.
"The car accident happened. That didn't happen before." Chris blushed slightly. "I changed the timeline by crossing the street."
"Okay Chris, so the timeline's been changed a little, but then why didn't we just keep vanquishing." Piper said matter-of-factly.
"There wasn't the car crash before. Which meant Kayla was riding her bike by the house when the demon possessed her, she fell off her bike, then got back up confused and rode away."
"But this time a car hit her... and we all went outside to help..." Phoebe spoke slowly as the pieces fell into place.
"Then Leo started healing Kayla..." Piper now realized what Chris was getting at too.
"And through the Leach Kayla absorbed some sort of white lighter power." Chris continued.
"And that's why she can orb, and that's why the Leach hasn't consumed her." Leo finished simply.
Phoebe snapped her fingers. "Every time Kayla orbs, the Leach seems to weaken. It can't seem to use the white lighter power with out letting some of the good surface! This could be the key weakness we need to defeat it!"
"Good timing," Piper said quickly and rushed into the other room.
Phoebe glanced in just in time to see Kayla lunge at Paige.
Paige orbed a split second before Kayla would have hit her, and reappeared standing next to her sisters. Kayla landed on the couch, crouched on all fours. Kayla turned her head towards the sisters, her teeth gritted and eyes narrowed in fury.
"Paige! Quick! Orb!" Phoebe said frantically.
"I just did!" Paige said in her usual "duh!" voice.
"She means orb her," Piper gestured at Kayla. "We have a plan, just orb her!"
Paige opened and closed her mouth a few times, but then promptly orbed as Kayla gave a sharp snarl from the couch. Instantly Paige appeared behind the couch and out of Kayla's range of sight. However, when Paige reached down to grab Kayla's shoulder, the prey became the predator.
Though she gave no sign that she realized Paige had appeared behind her, it became quite apparent when she whipped around on the couch, grabbed Paige's extended arm, and flung Paige straight over the couch and hard onto the coffee table. Paige didn't have time to even gasp before she smashed, back first, into the table. Shattered glass and bits of wood flew everywhere as the table collapsed and everything that had rested on top of it smashed. Paige was down for the count, and Kayla, slowly morphing into the demon form of her possessor, turned her attention to the remaining sisters.
One was down, only two left to go.
One was dangerous... it had destroyed her last mortal body. The other however, would keep the dangerous one from attacking. Long enough for her to attack.
The demon, formerly known as Kayla, began stalking on all fours towards Piper and Phoebe. Phoebe kept glancing between the approaching demon, and the unconscious Paige. Piper raised her hands defensively. Predictably Phoebe threw her arm across Piper's, and snapped.
"No! Don't!"
Piper gave Phoebe a dirty look, and her sister returned it. This moment of sibling rivalry was what the demon was expecting, and hoping for. In a split second the demon had launched itself into the air straight at Piper. What it hadn't expected was outside interference, namely from Chris.
Instead of tackling Piper, the demon was intercepted mid-flight by Chris. He managed to smash his shoulder into the attacking demon's ribs, and knock it out of the air. The demon hit the ground and rolled over a couple times before it was back on all fours, but Chris didn't stop there. He tackled the demon again, and orbed on contact. He reappeared again, sitting on the floor, his back against the wall, with his left arm wrapped around Kayla's neck, and his right arm holding hers behind her back in an arm lock. Kayla, almost unaware of her strange position on Chris's lap, was white as a sheet, breathing hard, and looking perfectly human.
Kayla suddenly lurched out of Chris's arms (probably tearing some shoulder muscles in the process), and was on her feet in an instant, backing away from Chris. She was frantically glancing around the room, looking at Chris, who promptly scrambled to his own feet, at Phoebe and Piper who were looking stunned, and at Leo, who was hovering his hands over a still unconscious Paige.
Kayla kept backing away, breathing rapidly.
What had she done? Had it been her? No it couldn't have been... or could it? She watched it... at first atleast... She couldn't stop it... If she couldn't stop it who could? And why did her shoulder hurt so damn much!
As all these thoughts raced through her mind, or was it really her mind any more?
Kayla looked at each of the three sisters in turn. "I... I'm not in control," She whispered, barely loud enough to be heard. "It's going to come back," the images of her parents ravaged bodies flashed through her mind, and her gaze landed upon Paige and the broken coffee table. One way or another, it had to be stopped.
"You will kill the charmed ones or they will kill you," the voice in her head snarled.
Kayla clapped her hands on hear head. "No I won't!" She shrieked aloud.
"Kayla," Piper said loudly and clearly. "Kayla you have to listen to me sweetie, I want you to-"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Kayla wasn't talking to Piper.
"They will vanquish both of us!"
"Let them vanquish us!" Kayla fell to her knees, still holding her head in her hands. "I'm not listening to you!"
Paige (who had now rejoined her sisters), Piper and Phoebe all exchanged glances.
Chris stumbled over, a slight limp in his left leg, and forced a piece of paper into Piper's hands. It didn't take two glances to know what it was.
"You wrote a power of three spell?"
"Someone had to," he muttered, just as Kayla cried out in pain.
"Get out! Get out!" She shrieked, completely collapsing to the ground, covering her face with her hands. She forced her head up and stared straight at the sisters.
"Kill it!" She screamed. "Kill me! Just stop it! Just stop it!" She screamed in pain again and squeezed her head tighter.
The Piper bit her lip and looked at Phoebe. Phoebe, stared at Kayla, then closed her eyes and gave a resigning nod.
Piper held the piece of paper out at arms length, and the three began reciting.
"Deep within this soul resides,
"A demon, dark and foul hides," As they spoke Kayla gave another cry of pain.
"To destroy this demonic, sucking, leach," A strange black aura suddenly formed around Kayla. It looked like the demon was trying to escape.
"Upon the Power of Three we do beseech," But the demon was too late.
There was a blinding flash of light, and an explosion that caused the whole room to shake. The sisters turned their heads away from the flash, and the instant silence was broken by one of the few glass objects left in the room that hadn't been smashed already, falling to the floor.
Piper, Paige and Phoebe, looked at the spot where Kayla had sat moments before. None of them were prepared for what they saw.
[A/N Some review replies!]
Rusty: Dude.. you are like my most dedicated fan... I feel so loved. lol