A/N: I noticed there is a little confusion about things. So I want to clear that up. One, Paige is not pregnant. And two, Persia's father is not a demon. He's an evil witch, but not a warlock. (In my Charmed universe, the two are different.) Special thanks to Ross, who talked me through my problems with this chapter/subplot. You're awesome, Ross! ;)
Change Happens
Chapter 31: Halliwell Birthday To You
"Piper!" Paige burst into the attic, waving the orange in her hand.
Glaring, the elder witch asked, "What?"
"Look!"
"It's an orange."
"I made it."
Piper smirked. "Paige, last I checked, you didn't even like gardening."
"No!" Paige shoved the fruit at her sister. "It used to be an apple."
"What?"
Phoebe tromped into the room with Cole and Glenn behind her. "It's true, Pipe. We all saw it. She was holding an apple when it glowed and then…"
"Poof!" Glenn titled the baby bottle. "It was an orange."
Piper snatched the orange from her sister's hand and examined it.
"What do you think?"
"I think," Piper drawled, "that Paige here just got a new power."
Paige stared at her snow white hands for a long moment, and then she slowly turned in a three-sixty circle, before finally making her way back to face Piper. "Well it's about damn time!"
----
The key clicked and Prue pushed the front door open. "We're home!" She frowned as she noticed the only half decorated Manor. "Piper! Paige!" She glanced over her shoulder. She could see her husband was trying to unbuckle Pandora. She shrugged and walked inside, leaving the door ajar. "Glenn?"
"Yes, yes, yes! This is so cool!"
Prue looked up to see Paige hopping down the stairs. "What's going on?" She placed her hands on her hips.
Paige stumbled down the remainder of the stairs and burst into Prue's arms, nearly knocking them both over. "Guess what! Guess what, guess what, guess what!"
Prue wriggled from Paige's vice grip and folded her arms. "What's got you so ecstatic, chica?"
"I got a new power!" Paige bellowed. Her normally white face was glowing pink with pride and excitement.
"You what?" Prue's eyes glistened. "Really, Paigey? What is it? How did you find out?"
"Trans-something-or-other."
"Transmorphation," Piper chimed in.
"Yeah, what Piper said."
"What's that?"
"I can shapeshift stuff," the half whitelighter replied simply. "I turned a fire blast into a water blast."
"Which I was on the other end of," Piper glowered.
"And an apple into an orange!"
"Paige!" Prue enthused. "That's so great! I'm so proud of you!"
"I know!" Paige clasped her hands together. "I can't wait to use it on our next baddie of the week." A smug look crossed her face. "Maybe I'll turn him into a pile of cow dung."
Piper raised her arm in protest. "Not on my rug, you don't!"
"What's going on?" Andy asked, his voice slightly muffled from the large Easy Bake box in front of his face.
"Do you need some help with that?" Phoebe asked.
"Fine," Andy grumbled.
"Aunt Piper!" Pandora yelped giddily. "Wanna play Easy Bake wif me?"
Piper hunched to the ground and stroked Pandora's hair. "Where'd ya get that, sweet stuff?"
"Uncle Darryl."
"Wow." Piper beamed. "Sure, honey, I'd love to make some stuff with you. How about after your party, okay?"
Pandora nodded intently. "Daddy, come take Easy Bake to my room!"
"Sure," the Inspector groaned. He waddled around the group in the middle of the room and headed towards the stairs.
"Uhm, Andy." Paige flicked her wrist, orbing her brother-in-law to the top of the stairs. "Just thought that might help."
"Thanks!" Andy yelled over the package. He could hear his daughter's footsteps as she ran up after him. He turned the corner, disappearing from view.
"You need to be careful with that," Piper chastised. "If your powers are anything like mine, you could end up changing someone into a water cooler instead of orbing them."
"Piper's right, you know." Prue moved to Glenn, and collected her youngest child. "You haven't forgot how many times Piper blew something up when she was trying to practice her slow motion power, have you?"
"No." The whitewitch sighed. Suddenly her eyes lit up with thought. "Hey, practice!" She slapped Prue's shoulder lightly. "Thanks for the idea, sis. I'm gonna go do that right now." She slipped out of the room in the direction of the kitchen.
"Don't touch my cake!" Piper bellowed after her.
----
Persia rounded the corner of a small Chinese restaurant, and moved into the alley. She pinched her nose, scowling at the smell of rotten, wet noodles and buzzing flies. She looked around cautiously, before yelling, "Aunt Paige!"
The witch tapped her foot anxiously. She'd never liked alley ways. They'd always given her the creeps. Especially when she'd lived in New York. The stories of robbery, rape, and killings always sent chills of her spine. Glancing up she yelled again, "Aunt Paige!" A noise stirred behind her. She whirled around.
To her horror, she was staring into the face of a black, red eyed rat. She shrieked and threw her hands into the air, emitting an electrical beam that missed the dirty creature by inches. She clambered backwards, sticking herself against the wall as the rat barred its teeth and scuttled after her. She screeched again, this time throwing out her arm purposefully. Her aim singed the rat's long pink tail.
A cloud of blue orbs materialized, giving the pained rat a chance to run behind the safety of two dumpsters, which were overflowing with moldy noodles. Out of the orbs, the youngest Charmed One stepped. She placed her hand to her forehead, glancing around. "Ewe. What's that?"
"What's what?"
"That smell."
"Noodles?"
"It smells burnt," Paige frowned.
Persia rolled her eyes. "You don't want to know." She took her aunt's arm and was instantly devoured in orbs.
When the blue glow had vanished, a red glow emanated from behind the dumpster. From behind it, stepped a tall African American man with squinty, ruby red eyes. He curled his fist in anger. "I've had just about enough of those witches!"
----3:00----
"Wow." Marcy Louis stood at the mouth of the stairwell. She was absolutely stupefied. Her mother had told her about the legendary Charmed Ones for as long as she could remember, but she never dreamed of being inside their home. Let alone coming to the birthday party of one of their children.
"Marcy!"
Marcy whipped her head around. A goofy grin was plastered on the little girl's face. "You have such a cool house!"
Pandora shrugged. "I can show you, if you wants to."
Marcy nodded enthusiastically. She pulled a small, dark purple Bratz camera from her pocket. "Can I get some pitures for my momma? She was weal excited that I was comin'."
"If you want," Pandora replied. She grabbed her friend's hand and tugged her up the stairwell. "You can see my woom fiwst."
Prue leaned her head on her husband's shoulder. She'd silently been watching from the front door. "I remember my first best friend," she smiled.
"Sarah Bower?"
"Yeah, that backstabbing bi-"
"Itch?" Andy interrupted.
"Right." Prue picked lightly at her cuticles. "We were the best of friends until first grade."
"When she hit on me," Andy smiled. "Although I wouldn't really call it 'hitting on,' because like you said, it was only first grade."
"Hey!" Prue wagged her finger. "She offered you a slice of her chocolate birthday cake, and then asked you to push her on our favorite swing. If that's not hitting on someone, then I don't know what is."
Andy puckered his lips. "I love you."
"I know you do," Prue said as she leaned in and pressed her lips to her husband's.
"Ewe!"
Prue and Andy spun around to see two more party goers in the doorway. Both of their faces turned a bright shade of red. "Uh-uh…"
"This way!" Piper charged up around her sister and brother-in-law, blocking them for the most part from the children's large eyes. "This way, guys! I'll take you all up to Pandora's room." She took the hand of the closest child and led him away, with the little girl in toe.
"Thanks Piper," Prue whispered, knowing that her sister wouldn't be able to hear her. She quickly squinted her eyes, closing the open door at she turned to her husband. The red in her face had faded to a soft pink.
"Maybe we should watch where we do these things?"
"Maybe." Prue entwined her fingers with Andy's and pulled him down the corridor. As they were about to enter the kitchen, a wall of orbs halted them. Prue pulled back, bringing Andy with her. "Paige?"
"Told you I'd make it back in time," Persia beamed. She crossed her arms and stood in the classic Halliwell gloating position.
"What's in the bag?" Prue asked, pointing to the plastic bag slung over her niece's shoulder.
"Spell stuff," Persia replied simply. She slipped away from her aunt's line of vision and bounded up the stairs, hoping to avoid further questions. "The birthday girl's upstairs, right?"
"Yeah." Paige scratched her head. "Strange."
Andy rubbed his chin. "Teenagers." He glanced at Prue. "At least we won't have to worry about that for a while, huh?"
Prue nodded thoughtfully. "I'm gonna go find Phae. Care to come with?"
Andy glanced towards the witchlighter. "Paige?"
"Book of Shadows," she said as she moved towards the stairs. "I want to go read up on my new power." Her lips curled as she said the latter.
"Have fun," Prue called as she slipped into the kitchen with Andy in toe.
----
"Hurry up!" The dark skinned, red eyed rat demon paced the darkened tavern in a frenzy.
"It takes time to revive the vanquished," a far more sinister looking demon answered. His skin was the color of decayed, yellow-gray flesh and his eyes were black holes that seemed to go on for eternity. He wore a black trench coat that flapped around his feet as he moved, and he wore a sliver chain around his neck with a pendant in the shape of three linked sixes. The ends of each six poked out from a circle with surrounded most of the sixes.
The rat demon stopped abruptly, staring at the demon's pendant. "What is that, anyway?"
"What do you think?"
"If I knew, I wouldn't be asking, now would I?" The rat demon's ruby eyes flickered in the fire light. "It's like that symbol from that one movie…"
"'The Omen,' yes." The demon dipped his decaying hand into a pot of ashes and sifted his hand through it.
"Cliché, isn't it? For a demon to wear a Christian's triple six pendant?"
"It's not a triple six," the other demon growled. "It's a reverse Triquetra." He touched the silver metal with his free hand. "The Triquetra, the symbol of the Charmed sisters, is a Goddess symbol representing the circle of life. This symbol represents death, resurrection, and the undead where the Triquetra is birth, life, and death." He stroked it proudly. "It's the symbol of the Alchemists."
"I see." The rat demon's eyes glimmered as he watched smoke rise from the pot. "Is it ready?"
"You're lucky," the Alchemist glared. "If your demon had been any more powerful, my magic would've been too weak to revive him."
"Witch."
"What?"
"Not a demon," the rat demon snarled. "A witch. You're reviving a witch."
"A witch?" The Alchemist lurched back in alarm.
"An evil witch," the rat demon replied acidly. "Go about your business." He flicked his hand and resumed his pacing.
"No need." The Alchemist brushed his hands together and loomed over the pot. He touched both his hands to the pendant around his neck, and a black-purple glow burst from his hands to the pot of ashes.
The ashes burst from the pot like an explosion and swirled around in a black mass. It looked strangely like a mini twister that was growing from the ground up. As it disappeared, it left two feet, followed by long legs, hands, a torso, and then a neck. The ashes began to dissipate, just short of revealing the conjured person's identity.
----
"Do you think we should get the kids for cake?" Phoebe moved from cupboard to cupboard, looking desperately for something to snack on.
Piper frowned. "It seems a little early for cake, Pheebs."
Phoebe rubbed her stomach. "But I'm so hungry, Piper!"
Piper glanced over her shoulder, staring wistfully at her masterpiece of a baked good. "I guess," she sighed. She flicked her wrist. "Go tell them to come on down."
Phoebe jumped at her sister, squealing in delight. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She kissed Piper's cheek.
Piper rolled her eyes. "Go before I change my mind!"
Phoebe gave a mock salute, before scampering out of the kitchen.
"You know, you seem really on edge today."
Piper whirled around to see her husband, hidden of course under layers of white makeup and flabby clothing. She suppressed a chuckle. "I just don't feel good about today. Something about it doesn't seem right."
Leo frowned. "Are you sure?"
Piper nodded. "Gut instinct, maybe?"
"Then you should follow it," Leo sighed. "You know, you don't have to be psychic to know when something isn't right. You of all people should know that."
"I know." Piper chewed her lip lightly. Before she could think to answer, the pitter patter of little feet drew her eyes to the kitchen entrance, just as a lurch of small children rushed in. "Guys, hey!" She pointed to the kitchen table. "Take a seat, okay? I'll have the candles on in a few minutes." She sidestepped her husband and grabbed a package of pink, sparkle candles from the countertop.
"Fancy, much?"
"I thought they were cute," Piper retorted playfully. She lightly stuck six pink candles into the cake and then carried it to the table, where she set it promptly in front of her niece. She quickly gazed around the room, noting that everyone who should be there was there and then she placed her hands on her hips. "Leo, will you get the lighter please?"
"I got it, Piper." Tyler flashed a pearly grin at the Charmed One. He squinted his eyes and within a few seconds, each candle ignited into a sparking orange.
"I'm impressed," Piper grinned cheekily. "You've really been working on that."
The Firestarter wrapped his arm around Persia's shoulders, pulling her close to his side. "I've got a good teacher."
Piper winked playfully at her niece. "Well, Pandora, are you going to make a wish?"
The telepath nodded, and then climbed into her knees to sit a little higher on the wooden chair. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, making a wish. Then with a large exhaling breath, she blew each of the six candles out in one fail swoop. Opening her eyes, she saw the smiling faces of her parents and family, as well as the giddy ones of her Magic School friends.
"What did you wish fow?" Marcy asked curiously.
"Can't tell ya," Pandora winked playfully.
"Time to cut the cake!" Phoebe squealed. She wriggled from her husband's grasp and grabbed the knife on the corner of the table. The Charmed One squeezed between her niece and one of the guests, and delicately placed the blade of the knife to the pink icing. As she pressed it firmly into the spongy cake, her fingers began to sting and the hairs on her neck began to prick. Her slender fingers loosened around knife, sending it clattering to the floor.
"Miss me Phoebe?"
Sweat coated her now pale skin. She slowly turned around, shaking like a leaf.
"That's right," a sinister male voice sneered. "I'm back."
Phoebe grasped at the edge of the table for support. Her lips quivered as she whispered, "James."
TO BE CONTINUED….
