A/N: Here's Chapter 15 for you guys! Gods, you really inspire me so much! thank you for the reviews and the kind words.

hugs to everyone

Chapter 15

"Phoebe!" Melissa rushed to the Charmed One. "What happened?" She knelt and reached out to heal Phoebe, when her charge flinched.

"Don't touch me, whoever, whatever, you are," Phoebe threatened, anger burning in her eyes. She gingerly wiped the blood with the back of her hand, and slowly got to her feet; she leaned on to Piper for support, still feeling weak from her vision.

"Phoebe?" Melissa looked at Phoebe, then to Piper, confused.

"Uh, Phoebes?" Piper whispered, helping Phoebe stay on her feet. "What's going on?" She looked at Phoebe, then to Melissa. Something's not right about her, Piper thought as she studied their Whitelighter, something's different.

Ignoring Piper, Phoebe glared at Melissa unwaveringly and began to question her, "Where's Paige? What did you do to our sister?"

"What…"

"Where is our sister?" Phoebe was seething, her voice ringing with barely controlled anger.

Melissa was confused and could do nothing but to stare at the two witches in front of her; bewilderment marred her eyes.

Piper was equally puzzled. She studied the Whitelighter, and began to see that she was squirming uncomfortably from where she stood. "Melissa?"

"Your phony act won't work on us anymore. I saw you in my premonition, impostor," Phoebe growled, "Where are you hiding our sister?" Phoebe saw, with her peripheral vision, Piper's eyes widen with shock and understanding.

Piper's shoulders tensed. She raised her hands, ready to either freeze or blow Melissa up if she as much as thought of doing something nasty.

Much to the sisters' surprise, Melissa threw her hands up in the air, seemingly in defeat. "I knew it couldn't be this easy," she said with a sneer, her voice grew steely, almost metallic. Her eyes screamed murder, and in a heartbeat, a small ceremonial dagger appeared in her hands. "I should have summoned stronger demons to get rid of you."

"So it was you," Piper said in realization, momentarily thrown off balance by Melissa's confession."You're the one who's been sending all those demons after us!" She couldn't believe it; she trusted this woman with their lives for the last couple of months. You're gonna pay for this, Piper thought furiously.

"Well, aren't you the smart one, Piper?" Melissa said in mock approval. "Yes, it was me, meek Melissa, always waiting at the sidelines, waiting to be called by the Charmed Ones."

"Why?"

"Why?" Melissa said, taking a step forward, "Because I needed you out of my way, that's why. I needed to get the youngest into my trap, my web, and get rid of her. But I couldn't very well do that, now can I? Not with you two- not with the Power of Three." She pointed her dagger at Piper, who had raised her hands again. "I had a hard enough time, too, sending all those demons after those pesky Whitelighters that they sent to guide you after Leo. But then, I knew that I only needed to bide my time and wait, wait until I got the perfect opportunity to convince them to 'hire' me to look over you. When those Elders finally did, I knew it was my time to strike."

"You sick little bitch," Phoebe roared and, on instinct, lunged forward, propelling herself high up to the ceiling with her ability to levitate. Before Melissa could even react, she stretched her left foot out, smashing the impostor's face with the force of a wrecking ball.

Overwhelmed by the force of Phoebe's attack, Melissa flew backward and smashed into the grandfather clock. Wood and shards of glass rained down on the carpet as her back collided with the family antique. Melissa fell down with a loud thud, her dagger slipping away from her grip, and laid limp and unmoving in the pool of splinter and glass.

Then, in the literal blink of the eye, her body vanished into thin air in a red glow.

The anger drained away from Phoebe's body, and was quickly replaced by confusion. "What just happened here? She threatens to kill us, and Paige, then suddenly vanishes in thin air?"

"I don't know," Piper said, equally puzzled. "You kicked, she flew, then she vanished. It was as if she weren't th…" she trailed off, a thought suddenly inching through her brain. "That's it! She wasn't really there in the first place. Oh for crying out loud, she was a clone, Phoebe!"

"Piper, wait, slow down," Phoebe frowned, her eyebrows shot up, "I'm not really following your thought train here. A clone? She seemed pretty real to me, well, until now."

"Well, not exactly a clone," Piper said, slowing down and trying to explain to Phoebe her theory. "It was… it was more of a projection. Remember when…when," Piper bit her lips to stop them from trembling as she forced herself to continue, pain overwhelming from the memory she was about to bring up. "Remember when Prue used to play astral games with us? She used to project herself to where we were from out of nowhere, tease us, and then plain vanish when we got pissed in that same red glow. She was somehow in there, with us, but not really." She sighed a breath of relief as the frown on Phoebe's face melted into that of understanding.

Prue, Phoebe smiled sadly. What I wouldn't give to see you astral back in the middle of the night and scare the hell out of me. God, I miss you, Prue. She shook her head and, looking back at Piper, nodded, her sister's idea suddenly making sense. "Wait, so if she were just a projection, then she's got to be astral-projecting from somewhere else. Question is- where? And…"

"And more importantly," Piper continued, "How? How could she astral project? She is, well was, or is," she stopped mid-sentence, brows furrowed, "supposedly a Whitelighter, and Whitelighters don't have the power to astral project- never have and never could. It's strictly Witch magic."

"Unless," Phoebe went on, picking up on Piper's thought train, "our little friend Melissa is a power- hungry thief. She's a…"

"Warlock."

Phoebe nodded. "Right. So if she were a warlock, then that must mean that she also stole a Whitelighter's power to orb."

"Right," Piper agreed, deep in thought. "So it's safe to assume that we have one dead astral-projecting witch and one dead Whitelighter. And in the absence of her," she pointed at the pool of wood and glass that lay on the carpet, "as prisoner and any contact with the rest of the supernatural world to confirm our suspicions, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yep," Phoebe cut in.

"Watcher." The two sisters said in unison.