Chapter Twelve

Many Choices

The blinding light faded as quickly as it had appeared, and the mystical smoke that was often associated with vanquishes faded with it. The scene that lay before them was so shocking that the sisters took a synchronized step back in surprise.

After a normal vanquish one might expect a charred crater in the carpet, or if the demon was particularly messy, some demon parts scattered around the room.

However, something more shocking that any dismembered demon parts scattered around the room could have been was Kayla, lying on her side, curled up on the ground, visibly uninjured.

"Uh..." Paige said, as articulate as ever.

"Did it...work?" Piper asked slowly.

Phoebe, more ready for actions than words, threw her right arm out, almost randomly, and succeed in landing it square on Chris's chest. She took a good grip on his shirt, and yanked him in front of her.

"Why didn't it work?" She demanded.

"I don't... who said it didn't work?" He stuttered.

Phoebe yanked Chris around so that he was facing Kayla instead of herself.

"That says quite a bit!"

"You rhymed 'leach' with 'beseech'?" Paige asked sarcastically.

"Exactly!" Phoebe snapped, "That's lamer than some of the things Paige's come up with!"

"Hey!"

"Um... guys, hate to interrupt but..." Piper nodded at Kayla who had just groaned and rolled over onto her back, here eyes closed tightly.

The sisters stared in silence for a moment.

"You know what..." Phoebe said slowly, "I'm not sensing anything demonic." She took a few cautions steps towards Kayla, her head cocked to the side as if she was straining to hear something far away. "Leo come here a second."

Leo, glanced at Paige and Piper and then walked over.

"Are you sure you can't sense anything?" He asked, as he kneeled down.

"Not a dirty thought in her teenaged mind," she said quickly, "Now heal! Chop chop!" She clapped her hands together.

Leo gave Piper and Paige another hesitant look, then extend his hands out over Kayla. One hand over her head, and one over her heart.

He just sat there for a moment, then he closed his hands and stood back up.

"Um, Leo... I've had the crap kicked out of me by Demons enough times to know what you healing looks like," Phoebe said, slightly accusingly. "And that wasn't healing."

"There's nothing to heal," he said softly.

"She unconscious!" Phoebe cried.

"She's sleeping," he said even softer, as if that would compensate for Phoebe's out burst.

"What?" Phoebe asked, returning her voice to a moderate tone.

"She's sleeping," he repeated, grabbing onto a very confused Phoebe's shoulder and guiding her away from Kayla.

"What are we doing?" Piper asked ask the two came back over (neither she nor Paige had heard Leo).
"Ssh!" Phoebe snapped. "She's sleeping!"

"Huh?" Paige and Piper asked together.

"I have a feeling she hasn't slept in days," Leo theorized softly. "The demon was probably keeping her constantly awake, I think the vanquish worked."

"Well what are we suppose to do now?" Paige asked.

"Wait."

Kayla mentally groaned. She could detect bright light behind her closed eyelids. That meant it was morning, and morning meant she had to get up. She rolled over, she'd just check what time it was, and if it wasn't too late she'd sleep a little longer. Admittedly if she slept any longer she'd probably have more of these strange dreams... She blinked her eyes open, and immediately realized not only was this not her room, but that her "dream" was a bit more real and nightmarish than she thought it had been.

Paige, who was sitting across from Kayla, cocked her head to the side so that it was at the same angle as Kayla's.

"Hey there," Paige said from her lopsided position.

Kayla didn't say anything, she just blinked a couple times, as if she was hoping the next time she opened them she would see something different. She sat up, pushing a blanket that Piper had laid across her off her shoulder. She swung her legs off of the couch, and her foot caught one of the few remaining shards of coffee table that the sisters hadn't picked up yet. Kayla looked from the broken remains to Paige. It hadn't been a dream. Every part of it was real... Every part... But now she felt different... Not necessarily better... She probably would never feel "better," but a good sort of different.

"What happened?" She whispered.

Paige opened her mouth and then closed it again. She didn't know how much Kayla remembered.

"Is it gone?" She asked.

Paige nearly smiled, but knew better. "It's gone."

Kayla slowly nodded, and drew her knees up to her chest. It was over. She couldn't really blame herself either... She thought she could fight it, but it was quite clear she couldn't have. Was she weak? No, she told herself. It was just too strong... Or was it...?

Kayla didn't notice when Phoebe and Piper (carrying Wyatt), entered the room. She was busy rubbing her shoulder and wondering why it hurt so badly.

"Hi sweetie," Piper said, sitting down, bouncing Wyatt on her lap while discretely turning off the baby monitor they had put in the room so that they'd know when Kayla had woken up.

Kayla didn't respond, instead she stared at her shoulder and kept rubbing it. In fact she was the only one who didn't jump in surprise when her hand lit up with trademark golden glow which usually meant a white lighter was healing something.

Kayla blinked a couple times and then experimentally moved her arm around. It didn't hurt.

"Well this is new," Piper said, biting her lip.

Kayla turned and looked at Piper as if she had just realized she was sitting there.

"Why isn't it all gone?" She whispered, sounding thoroughly terrified.

"Good question..." Paige muttered.

"Leo!" Piper and Phoebe said together causing him to instantly orb in, promptly followed by the appearance of Chris.

"What?" Leo asked in surprise.

"Why can she still heal?" Piper asked, jerking her head towards Kayla.

Leo turned to Kayla and looking mildly surprised. Very, very, mildly.

"I was afraid of that," he said simply.

Kayla went slightly pale.

"Why were you even thinking of that?" Piper asked curiously.

"Well when the leach orbed or healed itself, it had to do it through Kayla," he pointed at Kayla. Kayla looked at his finger with a slight look of fear in her eyes. "Which, I think, means it had to give her that power. When you vanquished it, you vanquished only the evil, and since whitelighter powers clearly aren't—"

"I got to keep them," Kayla finished softly, staring off into space. She then suddenly realized she had interrupted a person she had recently called (and with good reason) God Boy, and she jerked her head to look at him in slight fear. "Sorry... Lord...?"

Paige gave a snort of laughter.

"I liked 'God Boy' better," Piper said laughing.

Much to Kayla's relief, Leo didn't look angry or even annoyed. If anything he looked slightly embarrassed, which Kayla found very strange.

Kayla stared at her hands, opening and closing them slowly. Everything was different... Everything she knew, or thought she knew, was different. The world was really full of magic, like the fantasy novels she had read when she was young... She now possessed some of that magic... And her parents were...

"What am I going to do now?" She looked up from her hands. Her voice cracked as she spoke, and the sisters could see tears coming to her eyes.

"Well, that's really up to you now," Leo said. He glanced at the sisters, silently asking permission to continue, and they nodded.

Through working with Daryl and his police connections, and the Elders and their cosmic connections, Leo and the sisters had managed to set up a couple possible scenarios for Kayla.

Paige had contacted Daryl and told him (for the most part) what had happened. He said it would take some effort, but he was pretty sure he'd be able to get the demon attack reported as a wild animal attack, and if Kayla could throw in some witness testimony describing an animal breaking in, it wouldn't hurt. Daryl had given them the contact information for Kayla's uncle who lived in Los Angeles. Her uncle was currently working with the police in the investigation, and though no one had asked him, everyone was quite sure he'd take Kayla in if they asked.

"Now, you have a couple choices to make Kayla," Leo said patiently. The conversation had taken much longer than he thought it would have. He had to stop at one point when Kayla totally broke down crying, and needed several minutes, and words of comfort from the sisters, before she could compose herself.

"If you want us to—" Leo began.

"And only if you want us to," Phoebe cut in. "We aren't going to pressure you one way or another."

Leo gave Phoebe a silencing look, then continued.

"If you want us to, we can have your memory wiped. So that you don't remember any of this happening."

There was a pause.

"We can also..." Leo said slowly, suddenly realizing there was a second issue. "Bind your powers, making them dormant. So you won't know that you have them, and you won't accidentally use them."

Everyone sat in silence watching Kayla, who was systematically chewing on every part of her lower lip, waiting for her to respond. She stared at her hands a moment, opening and closing her hands into loss fists, thinking.

"I don't want to forget anything," she said slowly. "But binding..." She said, more to herself than anyone else.

Suddenly Paige had an idea. She leaned over and muttered something in Leo's ear.

Leo looked thoughtful for a moment, and then started slowly nodding.

"I'll be right back," he said, standing and orbing without explaining.

Phoebe, Piper and Chris all gave Paige a confused look, while Kayla was oblivious to the whole exchange.

Within seconds Leo was back looking quite delighted.

"We have one more option for you Kayla," he said smiling slightly.

Kayla looked up with a blank expression.

"If you want to keep both your memory, and your powers... Then if you want, we can arrange to have you enrolled in Magic School."

Kayla's eyebrows shot up, and she just stared at Leo for a moment.

"I'm in a freaking Harry Potter book!" She said in disgust, throwing up her hands up in the air.

Paige burst out laughing while Phoebe and Piper both rolled their eyes.

"You're actually serious?" She said suddenly, realizing that he was. And why not? She asked herself. She'd seen enough already... how hard was it to believe they had some sort of magic school?

Leo nodded in answer to Kayla's, mostly rhetorical, question.

Kayla sat quietly for a moment, absorbing everything.

"Can... Can I try it?" She asked hesitantly. "Like maybe try... Magic School... and if not you guys could..." She taped her forehead and made a face.

Leo, Chris and the sisters all nodded together.

"Alright..." She said slowly. Then again, with more confidence. "Alright, lets do it."

- - - - - - - - - -

A/N Okay, I couldn't resist. Anyone who knows me knows that all my fanfics must have a Harry Potter reference at some point! Hehe. Now I know this seems like a pretty conclusional chapter, but there is one more. The last one is mostly a wrap up, and because I really wanted a fic with 13 chapters, hehe.

rusty: yeah I guess I did make you get out of bed huh... lol