Chapter 15
"Possessed?" Phoebe asked. "No, no you guys are wrong. I've been possessed, remember? No, she's not possessed."
"You were completely possessed by spirits that had unfinished business here on earth," Leo told her. "They died trying to get married, which is why they took over you and Cole. I don't think that Melinda is completely possessed yet, just partially."
"It won't be long though," Chris said forlornly.
"I'll go get her," Wyatt said. "I think she might try to fight us if we do an exorcism though."
"There's enough of us here to handle her," Piper said. "We'll restrain her if we have to."
"Restrain me for what?" Melinda asked coldly from the entrance way. She was standing before them dressed in dark blue jeans and a bulky black sweater. Her hair hadn't been brushed, and here normally vibrant eyes were a dull black. Her lips were almost white and her face was pale and blotchy.
"Melinda," Paige said. "Sweetie we think that you may be under the influence of a spirit, a spirit that is trying to possess you. We have to try to exercise it from you."
"Possessed?" Melinda asked. She laughed a deep laugh and looked at her family. "What would make you think that?"
"You've been really distant from us lately," Paige told her. "You've isolated yourself from everything and everyone. You've been angry with everyone for the smallest things that used to never bother you. Not to mention that episode with you throwing Henry into the clock…"
"I told you then," Melinda told her aunt, "I was tired of his crap and I wanted to put a stop to it. He hasn't bothered me since."
"But Melinda," Piper said. "That just wasn't like you."
"I'm fine, I'm not possessed. I haven't heard any voices or seen any spirits. I'm just tired of this family thinking that they're all better than me!"
"Don't lie," a voice said from behind her. Melinda spun around and saw the woman ghost that had led her to the diary in the first place. "We've been chatting on and off for weeks. Of course you've been seeing spirits and talking to them."
"Oh my God!" Piper and Phoebe exclaimed at once. Paige looked to her sisters in utter confusion.
"SHE'S MINE NOW!" a voice that was not Melinda's screamed from her mouth. "She's mine now and you can't stop me now!"
"Melinda!" Chris and Wyatt exclaimed, but they were too late. She was gone.
Piper and Phoebe continued to stare at the ghost. Her wavy brown hair was loose at her shoulders, her dress old but she wore it beautifully. Paige studied the ghost as she stood there in their presence and wondered who she was.
"Melinda," Piper said. "What are you doing here?"
"Wait," Paige said. "Melinda? As in Melinda Warren? Our great great great grandmother Melinda Warren?"
"Nice to meet you too, Paige." Melinda smiled.
"Wow," Paige said.
"I came to try to help Melinda," she said turning to Piper. "I would have come to you, but I had to conserve my energies in case this happened. The ghost is that of a warlock called Anton. It came to my attention a few weeks ago that he was stalking her, taking advantage of her insecurities. I led her to the diary of Pearl Russell in hopes that she would learn from Pearl's mistakes and not let Anton take her over."
"Anton?" Phoebe asked remember a time long before. He was her lover in another life and very evil. She could easily see how Anton could seduce her niece.
"Yes," Melinda answered. "He's completely taken her now, and not without her permission in a way. She opened her mind to him last night willingly, and that opened the door for his influence."
"Oh no," Piper moaned. "What do we do? Chris, go get the book, we need to figure this out."
"I have to go now," Melinda said sadly. "I'll be back soon with help, but I need to conserve my energy."
She wiggled her fingers goodbye as she slowly faded away. Chris dashed up the stairs to bring the book down, Phoebe's daughters got the scrying crystal, Billy headed up to Melinda's room to get something for the crystal to focus on, and Paige's kids went to the kitchen to pull out the necessary things to make potions. Paige, Phoebe, and Leo tried to comfort Piper.
"She'll be okay, we'll get her back." Paige told her eldest sister.
"Found the spell," Wyatt announced. He and Chris were sitting together over the book, with their heads close as the studied the book.
"It's a power of three spell," Chris said. "But…"
"But what?" Phoebe asked.
"But it calls for the elementals," Wyatt said. "And it's very specific that the power of three must be combined with the power of the elements, and they all have to be sisters otherwise it won't work."
"Can't we just call a priest?" Billie asked.
"No," Leo told her. "This won't be as simple considering Melinda is a witch. It's not often that this happens, and it has to be very precise."
"Have you ever dealt with this before?" Wyatt asked his dad. "When you were a whitelighter I mean."
"Once, when I first got my wings. She was a young witch, one of my first charges."
"What happened?" Paige asked.
"I lost her," Leo said. "We couldn't find the elemental sisters, and the power of three didn't exist yet."
Piper tried to suppress her tears and Phoebe squeezed her hand. Piper had no clue who or what 'elemental sisters' were, or how to find them. She did know that she had to find them fast, before Anton completely took over her daughter and turned her evil. Seeming to read her thoughts, Phoebe spoke up.
"Don't worry," she told her sister. "As long as we get to her before she kills an innocent, she won't completely turn."
Melinda looked at her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was arguing with her family that she was not possessed, and now she was standing at Tony's motorcycle shop looking in. She had no clue how she got there, but she figured everything happened for a reason. She looked through the plate glass window and saw him talking with a customer. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw his broad shoulders underneath his tight black tshirt. Suddenly furious that she hadn't heard from him in a week, she barged through the doors.
"Tony!" she announced.
He turned and smiled when he saw her. Excusing himself from the customer, he rushed over to her and tried to wrap her in his arms. She pushed him away and glared at him.
"I know, I know I promised to call you," he told her apologetically. "But I had to figure everything out first and I didn't want to get your hopes up. At first, I thought maybe we could elope, but then I didn't think that would be good at all. I don't want you to be alienated from your family because of me. But, I think I have it figured out!"
"Who are you to make decisions for me?" she asked him coldly.
He looked her over. Something was different but he couldn't figure it out. He took her by the arm and led her to a more secluded part of the shop.
"I'm sorry," he told her. "Please, don't be angry. I love you."
Melinda laughed at him, and he looked hurt. Why was she acting this way?
"Are you sure you love me?" she asked him. "Would you love me if I told you a HUGE secret about myself?"
"I love you, no matter what." Tony said quietly, not sure where she was heading.
"I'm a witch Tony," she told him boldly.
"What?" he asked.
"I'm a witch. A true witch. I cast spells and make potions. I would fight demons and warlocks, but my family doesn't think I'm good enough for that. But," she said thoughtfully, "that's all changed now. I can do anything now."
"Melinda," Tony said worriedly. "Did you hit your head on something?"
"Oh, you don't believe me?" she asked. Suddenly the display of motorcycle helmets on the wall came crashing to the ground, the water cooler erupted water, and the engines to all of the bikes started at once.
"What the Hell!" Tony yelled as he spun around staring in disbelief at the commotion. Melinda laughed.
Piper, Phoebe, and Paige all sat at the book flipping through the pages once more. They had been reading every syllable as to some sort of hint of who the elemental sisters may be.
"Maybe fairies?" Paige asked. "They have big families."
"No," Piper said. "Fairies are peaceful. They don't like battles, besides, their magic is more mischief than it is anything else. I don't think that they have enough power for this."
"She's not coming up," Patience sighed. "We've been scrying for an hour, and we can't find her. It's like she's fallen off the face of the earth!"
"Because she's not her anymore," Patty told her sister. "It's Anton."
"We can't scry for ghosts," Priscilla said, frustrated.
"Are there any potions that could help us flush out a ghost?" Little Henry asked. He felt helpless and responsible for his cousin's situation. He was just playing, but maybe it wasn't as funny as he thought it was.
"There might be," Paige said distractedly. "But I wouldn't know where to begin to look."
"We can try magic school," Porche and Pepper said.
"Good idea," Paige told them.
"Would you bring Madison with you?" Billie asked. She didn't want her daughter in the midst of all the excitement. Since the powers skipped generations, Madison had no way of protecting herself, not to mention she was only 10 years old and Billie herself didn't come into her powers until she was in college.
"What if it were the four of us," Billie suggested to the sisters. "We're all like sisters, and there's four of us."
"You're not actually our sister, Billie." Piper snapped.
"What Piper means to say," Paige said trying to cover up for her cranky sister. "Is that we are the power of three, and it specifically calls for the elementals and the power of three."
"Sorry," Piper said. She was beside herself and to the point of pulling out her hair with her bare hands.
"Actually, she's right." Someone said from behind them. "Kind of anyway."
"Prue!" Phoebe shrieked. She temporarily forgot the worry she felt for Melinda, and jumped to her feet to greet her long dead sister. Melinda Warren stood next to her smiling.
"Prue?" Piper more asked that said. She was amazed to see her big sister. In all the years since her death, and all the ghosts of her relatives that she saw, Prue had never come. She summoned her all the time, but to no avail.
"What are you doing here?" Phoebe asked.
"To help with the elements," Prue answered.
"What?" Paige asked. She had never met Prue, and in the beginning she was very jealous of the dead sister she had never met. Meeting her like this was not the way that she had imagined, and the impact hadn't fully hit her yet.
"Yes, Paige." Prue answered calmly smiling at her youngest sister. "We are the elements."
"No," Piper said. "We are the Charmed Ones."
"No, you're not." Melinda told her. "My prophecy said that the powers of the Warren line would increase until the culmination of three sisters that would be the ultimate good witches. There were four of you, which makes you the elements before the Charmed Ones. You guys paved the road for the true Charmed Ones."
Piper heard what Melinda was saying to her, but she couldn't wrap her head around it. She had fought for years as a Charmed One, and now she was being told that she wasn't? Melinda had said herself when they summoned her years ago that they were the Charmed Ones, how could that change now?
"No," Phoebe said with panic in her voice. "We were the Charmed Ones. We defeated the source, we took out the Triad, we beat the Avatars. Wyatt and Chris are twice blessed. We are the Charmed Ones."
"Are your children still fighting evil?" Prue asked Phoebe. "Are there still demons and warlocks out there?"
"Well, of course there are." Paige said. "We can never get rid of evil, you know that."
"I know that we can't," Prue said. "But the prophesy says that the Charmed Ones will."
"Then who are the Charmed Ones?" Phoebe asked, not wanting to know the answer.
"We are," Priscilla said, standing with her sisters.
