Chapter5: A Rising on the Sun
"Gahhhrrrr! Where the hell is she?" Fred leapt over the railing and ran up the stairs. Her long sleeved shirt and jeans were torn and stained with blood. She turned in time to see the beast chasing her swipe it's long razor sharp claws and add yet another wound to her already very scathed body, this one on the front of her left shoulder. "Paige, get your Wiccan ass over here now!" Looking to her right, as she continued to run, she saw a battle axe on the wall. She reached up with both hands and ripped it from the wall. Bringing it to her side she whirled around in time to parry a blow that would have taken her head.
She took one step forward and swung the axe down and brought it up to the monster's left shoulder, finally managing to injure it. As the creature reacted to the painful gash unexpectedly being made on it's shoulder, Fred once again whirled around, taking another step forward, this time swinging the axe around to the demon's right side and took off it's head.
As the demon fell to the ground, Paige orbed behind it. "What took you so long?" Fred walked around the corpse. She swung the axe up with her left hand, caught it at the base of the metal blade with her right hand, and as her right hand caught it her left hand let go and she rest the broad, inwardly curved base of the blade on her good shoulder. "The party's over."
"Oh, my god, Fred! How can you still be standing with all of those cuts and…and scrapes…and-ouch that looks painful." Paige quickly walked to Fred and took the axe with her right hand and put her left hand on Fred's good shoulder. "You need to sit. Come on." Paige walked Fred over to a chair and dropped the axe on the floor. "What the hell was that thing anyway?"
"Prio Motu. Extremely powerful demon. I'm lucky to have been able to bring it down by myself." Fred took some time to examine her wounds more closely. "Have you seen the episode with the Tribunal?" Paige nodded. "Remember the demon that Angel killed that time…the one that was really a good demon?" Another nod from Paige. "That beast is an excellent example of a bad one." Fred jabbed her thumb in the direction of the now headless demon. She gestured to herself as she added, "and this is an example of what one of those monsters can do to someone who is properly trained to fight one." A quick laugh escaped her lips. "Trust me, you do not wanna see what one can do to a person not trained to fight it."
"So did you call me to get you out of here or to help you fight the Prio?" Paige sat on the floor next to Fred's chair.
"To get me out. But since I managed to kill it, maybe you can use that healing trick on me." Fred smiled, exhausted, and raised her right hand in attempts to wipe blood off her forehead, but only succeeded in spreading it.
"I'm sorry, but I can't." Fred stared at Paige thinking that Paige was refusing to help her. Paige noticed. "Oh, no, it's not like that at all. You see I'm only half whitelighter. So I am unable to heal, I don't have that power. If you want healing you should call Leo. Is there anything else?"
"Is there a spell that you could say that will help me clean up this bloody mess of a headquarters before Angel returns?" Fred inquired of Paige.
"I will try my best. 'Make this mess but a dream, as I cause this scene to be unseen.'" As the last words of the spell were said the mess of the battle was cleared. Stains of blood on the floor and walls vanished without a trace. Torn curtains, smashed in walls, overturned tables, broken chairs, and cracked windows throughout the headquarters were repaired and the building was, once again, the way it should be. "There. Everything seems okay now. Now I think I'll call Leo. LEO!" Paige turned and saw Fred passed out, about to fall out of her chair. "Leo, now!" She screamed as loudly as she could.
Pri orbed in and looked around. "Mom, what's wrong?"
"It's Fred, she needs Leo to heal her." Paige orbed Fred to a sofa and lay her down, and Pri followed. "Le-wait a second…" Paige turned to Pri. "Why are you here?" Before Pri could answer Paige shouted again. "Le-"
Pri interrupted. "Stop, he is busy. He sent me." Pri walked past Paige, and kneeling by Fred's side, Pri began to heal Fred.
Paige stood there stunned. "Y-you c-can heal?" She took a step toward Pri. "You never said you could heal. That time when I called Leo to heal Jason in the hospital…you could have just healed him…and that other time…" Her voice faltered and trailed off.
"We thought it best if you didn't know. But this is an exception. Fred needs to be healed and Leo can't do it. I'm the only one left who can." Pri continued to heal and Fred began to stir.
"Why wouldn't you want me to-wait a minute. Half whitelighters can't heal. Either your father was a whitelighter or…you die and come back. I'm guessing it's the second one." Paige's eyes teared up and showed that she fears the truth. "Pri…are you dead?" She asked this as a tear rolled slowly down her cheek.
"Yes. But you have to promise not to try to stop it." Fred was fully awake and now the only signs that she was once wounded as she was were the thin scars where the wounds had been. Pri stood up and turned to face Paige. "I come back with full powers and if you try to stop it…let's just say my death helps the future. Twenty minutes after I die I orb home like nothing happened."
"I think I should go downstairs and wait for the others to get back." Fred got up and as she walked down the stairs she examined a scar on her arm that, only minutes before, was a three-inch long, half-inch deep gash. "Wow, this healing stuff really works…"
"How old are-were-will you be when you…when this happens?" Paige paid no attention to Fred.
"I will have just turned twenty-two. Now let's go-" Suddenly the front door slammed open and a commotion could be heard downstairs. At that moment Paige orbed back to the manor, unaware of what was going on. "-home. Or not." Pri orbed downstairs to Fred.
"Pri?" Angel looked up from an unconscious, bleeding Gunn to see Pri orb in. "Did someone call you or is it simply by luck that you happened to get here when we need you?"
"Excuse me." Angel stepped aside and Pri walked past him. "I was just upstairs. Fred called my mom after fighting a Prio and when Mom called Leo I came," she said as she kneeled at Gunn's side and healed him. She stood up and turned to Fred. "Are you okay-or do you need more healing?"
"I'm fine, but why hasn't Gunn woken up yet? I thought he would when he was healed." Fred cast a worried glance in Gunn's direction. At that moment they heard a sharp intake of breath as Gunn gasped for his first breath of air since he passed out.
"Sometimes, in a case as bad as his, they take awhile to fully recover. But, obviously, he is fine now." Pri reached for Gunn's hand and helped him up. "You were almost as hurt as Fred was. She was lucky to have still been standing after killing that thing. I would have been dead after the first attack it made. But of course you guys are trained for that kind of fighting." Pri took a deep breath and frowned deeply before continuing. "Something's coming. Something big. There's so much demonic activity lately that I can feel it in the air. Both your demons and my demons are trying to get on the good side of this thing that's coming, most likely so it won't kill them." As these words were said the look of determination in Pri's eyes told them that she was serious.
"It's probably nothing to worry about. Your kind of demon is different from ours. So even though a lot of "demonic activity," as you call it, for your demons may mean something big, but for our demons it may mean something else." Angel tossed his sword on the ground and saw Pri shake her head. "Okay, fine, what makes you think you're right?"
"It's very rare that you face a Prio. Don't you find it strange that you fought two in the same day at almost the same time? And one of them attacked your own headquarters." The others nodded their heads in agreement. "And, now that I think about it, Wolfram and Hart hasn't been as active as normal." Pri's eyes lit up as she began to piece things together. "Darla."
"What about her?" Fred stood up and went to Gunn's side. "She's dead, for the second time actually...or is it the third? If you're thinking that Wolfram and Hart is tying to raise her again I don't think it would be possible."
"No, no. You're right but that's not what I'm saying." Pri rushed to Angel and as she whispered in his ear he looked up, suddenly alert, coming to realization of what might be happening. Pri then spoke so everyone could hear. "What if-now hear me out on this-what if Wolfram and Hart is trying to raise something, just like they did Darla?"
"I-I think I'll go check some scrolls, or books, or something." Wesley was nearly speechless. "Maybe I can find something." As he turned to leave he whispered in Angel's ear. "She certainly is a smart one."
The newest employee at Wolfram and Hart looked at his watch and glanced at the circle of strange creatures beneath the high noon sun. Every other creature in the circle was a demon that the Charmed Ones were used to seeing; each suspending a basketball sized ball of fire high above their heads. The other monsters in the group, demons that Angel would encounter, had their hands together and heads bowed as if in prayer while they chanted in unison a repetitive spell. The man turned and whispered into Lila's ear. "Some of those demons don't even look like demons…and what the hell are they chanting in?"
"Silence. It is an ancient dialect of a nearly dead language." She glared at the man. "Here at Wolfram and Hart you will learn to hold your tongue during times of such importance as this. You will also learn that some demons are different from-look at the sun! Quick, an opportunity like this comes only once in a lifetime."
They watched as a beam of fiery light came down from the sun and, as it touched down in the center of the circle, the group of demons broke apart to reveal what appeared to be a young woman stepping out of the beam. This girl had very short black hair with a slight tint of blood red barely visible on the black. She wore a tight short-sleeved black shirt with a chain mail tank top on top. On her hands were knuckles forged of a metal unknown to any being of this earth. Jutting out of these knuckles were razor sharp spikes. Her pants were chain mail, forged of the same metal as the tank top and knuckles, lighter than air and harder than diamonds, dyed a deep jet black. The sound of the metal links clinking together could be heard with every move she made. Her deep red eye shadow brought out the raging flames in her eyes. All in her sight could feel her blazing rage, as she let out a cry of anger and destroyed, one by one, each of the suspended fireballs above her head.
Lila looked to the man whose jaw hung open in awe. "What did I tell you, pretty cool huh?"
"Why, in the name of the Source, have I been brought here?" She glared at the man and took a menacing step toward him. "Oh, wait, if this is about the bloody prophecy I don't want nothing to do with it." She looked at Lila's expression and could tell that her being there did have to do with the prophecy. "Bloody hell, I told the prophets not to say anything about me until after the apocalypses. So is there a reason why you called me here, or can I get back to the-hold on a moment…my powers are weakened. You brought me to the bloody past didn't you?" An accusatory tone was in her voice.
"We have learned of three-" The man was cut off by Lila.
"Four powerful witches are helping Angel and his gang." Lila smiled nervously. "With them in the picture the apocalypse most likely will not happen. They have stopped it before. We brought you here because you can stop them."
"Witches? You brought me here to this planet, to the past even, woke me up from my nap, and all for some witches?" She levitated several feet into the air and hovered above the ground, hair blowing wildly, an expression of pure hatred on her face, and she began to form a large fireball between her two hands. "Witches are nothing…you bloody know that you can handle a few witches yourself."
"You underestimate their power. These aren't the kind of witches one normally deals with." Lila flipped open a portable DVD player and started a video. The video was a recording of all four witches using their powers. "On top of spells they have a large variety of…active powers, they call them. If it weren't for your accent and different colored hair I'd swear you were the youngest. You look exactly alike. Although she is the youngest she has the widest variety of powers. We've seen only four of them but we believe her to have more. The others have two powers. They have vanquished at least four Sources-you do know what that is right?" The demon nodded, extinguishing the fireball. "Well, the three older ones did that. The youngest is strong but has not had the chance to fight a Source yet. If you kill them-we know you can-you will have the honor of bringing the apocalypse. It's never coming anyway with these so called Charmed Ones around."
She had hit a nerve. The demon fell to the ground and angrily went to Lila. "Did you say Charmed Ones?" The girl said with a snarl. Anger coursed through her veins. "Baby sister must be planning something. Looks like I won't be killing you after all." She disappeared in a cloud of smoke.