"I'm sorry what did you say?" Paige shook her head, narrowing one eye. "I thought you said that this old guy was Andy. No offense," Paige smiled brightly at the elderly looking man before noticing at twinkle in his eye. "Oh…no…no" she almost began to laugh. "I mean you're what, almost a hundred?"
"One hundred and ten" the man answered, "I'm an immortal, just like Prue and our daughter, Austin"
"This is not happening….so not happening" Paige muttered under her breath before an idea struck her. "Hold that thought, I'll be right back." Paige returned several minutes later with Austin in her arms. "Okay, Aussie, good or bad?" Having the power of auric sight, Austin could instantly tell if the man before them was a white lighter, demon, witch, or a mortal.
Austin cocked her head slowly communicating with Amanda telepathically.
"Go on Aus, we need to know if this is Dad" Amanda said mentally.
Plucking her thumb from her mouth the three-year old released a purple hue around the man. Purple haze swam about him resembling clouds and cotton candy. "Daddy!" Mommy and Daddy were two of just a few words that Austin could say clearly.
"Hmph" Paige snorted, letting Austin slide to the floor where she went running to the old man nearly tackling him with a bounding hug to his knees. "If you're the real Andy, then orb, turn invisible" Paige waved her hand, "do something magic"
Andy placed a thin wrinkled hand into Austin's hair, stroking it tenderly as she held tightly to his legs. "I can't, I haven't had any powers since Destiny gave them to Amanda"
"How do you know that?" Paige snapped suspiciously before calling for her brother in-law "LEO!"
The white lighter appeared instantly looking befuddle as his eyes landed on the old man. Part of him recognized his friend right away. "Is this…?" Leo pointed glancing back at Paige.
"Never mind, right now, just go up there and get Prue!" Paige ordered watching Leo burst back into a cloud of orbs. Together Paige and Amanda helped the elderly looking Andy down the stairs and to the couch. It took Andy a few moments to settle down into the soft cushions but slowly he was able to ease himself downward and handed Austin his white tipped cane. Immediately the little angelic witch took off on it playfully pretending it was a horsy.
"I'll be right back" Paige then went to the kitchen to make Andy a cup of herbal tea.
"Amanda" Andy looked his daughter through weary tired eyes. "You are so beautiful."
Amanda sank to the couch beside him brushing a stand of his fine white hair, "Dad how did you get so old looking?" she whispered. "Who or what did this to you?"
"Your Mother," he answered flatly just as a burst of orbs entered the room forming into Leo and Prue.
Ghost Plane of P3
Piper turned around from where she'd been standing in P3 at the bar, to find herself in a ghost plane. Everything in the club was the same with the exception of being in black and white. "This is not funny," she growled, looking around for death. "I've learned my lesson, and I'll never interfere again"
"I doubt that" Death's voice boomed from out of nowhere. Piper whipped her head around the general area of the club but Death was nowhere to be seen.
"Crap" She hissed waving her hand at water glass on the bar. She'd hoped to blow it up but nothing happened. She had no powers. Picking up the ledger she kept on the bar, she slammed it down onto the counter, cursing wildly. "Crap! Crap! Crap! I have to meet with the engraver today to pick out the font for Phoebe's memorial plaque!" Despite the fact that Phoebe had been cremated the Halliwells had decided to reserve a place for her urn at the family mausoleum.
"Then you should have thought about that before messing with me" Death roared back prompting the witch to point a finger up to the ceiling.
"This is so…so not funny" Piper kept her jaw clenched, "when I get out of here, I am so going to kick your so called neutral ass!"
"I look forward to it, but until then you will rectify the situation of all of the lost souls who are wandering about aimlessly thanks to your spell" Death had purposely sent Piper to a plane where human souls were trapped unable to move onto the afterlife due to some soft unfinished business in their lives.
"Great not again," Piper groaned recalling the time Paige had cast a projection spell that had backfired in order to save a priest. That time, Piper had ended up becoming Death's assistant so that he could catch up on all of the souls he was supposed to collect. "Well let's just hurry this up, then. I've got an engraver to meet and a business to run."
At that moment a man dressed in covered in blood and wearing a ball cap walked up to the bar. Prompting Piper to jump back. "Just who the hell are you?"
"I-I was told you could help me" the man swallowed. You see, I was in an accident this morning, while I was on my way to do something important."
"Get to the chase, what do you need to do?" Piper retorted, repacking the package of nuts she'd opened earlier.
"Dismantle a bomb"
"Dismantle a what?" Piper's neck craned forward with her eyes bulging, "Are you freaking crazy?" A bomb, and from the looks of things this guy didn't look like was a member of an explosive ordinance team. He looked liked the geek who'd been teased too much in high school and had snapped.
"Some say I would be" the man answered meekly. "So are going to help me or not? Cause the Angel of death said-"
"The Angel of Death? How can I refuse?" Reaching under the bar, Piper flung out her sweater and stomped around the bar glaring upward as if she could see Death chuckling with is dreary smile plastered on his face. "C'mon let's go!".
Piper grabbed the man by the wrist and started stalking upward, thundering like a heard of cattle. Once she reached the top, she leaned her shoulder into the door, flinging it open, and straight into daylight. "Okay, this is creepy" Instead of the street that P3 was located on, men were dressed in uniform, carrying guns and riding down the street in tanks. It was then that Piper realized that the club had become a portal to other parts of the world.
"Where are we?" she breathed.
The Middle East the man replied.
"THE MIDDLE EAST?" It was then that Piper realized that the man was not a deranged geek but a solider wearing a blood covered Military uniform and government issued glasses.
"I was killed on my way to warn my girlfriend of a suicide bomber." He explained she's suppose to meet me over there at that restaurant". He pointed across the street to tiny café with iron furniture sitting on an outside patio.
"A suicide bomber? Now why would death want to stop that?" Surely saving all of people would screw up his precious Grand Design.
"Because Divanna, was chosen to carry a Daughter of Destiny's Child."
"The daughter of Who?" Piper's snarled, craning her neck towards the young man.
A daughter of destiny's child, they are like guardian angels chosen to guide future world leaders, sort of like your white lighter. They are filled with knowledge on how to guide future leaders towards their chosen path."
"Wait a minute?" Piper crossed her hands over her chest giving the man her best stare. "Just how do know about white lighters?"
"Because I am one or was one" the man explained. "I was killed this morning by a dark lighter on my way to warn Divanna"
"I thought you said she was your girlfriend?" Piper asked as the man started to blush.
Rosebuds started to blossom on the man's cheeks. "Some white lighters are very close to their charges."
"Tell me about it" Piper quipped as the man pointed out the car. Together they started to run down the street towards the vehicle, with Piper waving her arms frantically. "GET OUT EVERYBODY, OUT NOW!"
Jumping in front of the car, Piper flexed her wrists in hopes that she could freeze it, but no such luck. Death had stripped her powers forcing her to depend upon her wits. "That son of a bitch! she moaned, using her body as a blockade.
The driver laid on the horn hoping Piper would move. "Please don't hit, me, please don't hit me" Piper prayed as the driver suddenly pulled the wheel to swerve. The sound of brakes screeching combined with the crushing of metal could be heard as the car ran into a fruit stand, right before it exploded on impact missing it's original target.
Parts of debris flew everywhere forcing everything to the ground including Piper. She rolled for several feet before finally stopped and attempted to pull to her feet. Still half way on the ground the white lighter appeared before her smiling.
"Thank you. The world will be eternally grateful" The white lighter then faded from her sight.
"They'd better be" she grumbled holding her hip.
Prue needed no introduction or convincing that man sitting next to Amanda was her husband. He was definitely Andy, just as she'd pictured him when she dreamed of the two of them growing old together. But that had been before they both had died.
"Andy" Crossing to the couch, Prue took the empty spot next to Andy so that he was in the middle between she and Amanda. Gently she put her arms around him and kissed his neck, before adverting her attention to Leo. "Leo go check the book, see if there is a spell to reserve this"
Andy laid his hand on the side of Prue's face "There isn't. This is natural Prue"
Pulling away slightly, Prue began to shake her head, "Andy no…you've only been gone a week".
"Try nearly seventy years, Prue". Prue didn't know it, but he'd lived a lifetime in just the five days she thought he'd been gone. "That's why destiny gave Amanda my powers". Losing his powers but not his immortality had caused the Tracer to become more human like and bound to the laws of natural aging.
"Then why didn't time altar itself? Leo asked. "If you've been gone for seventy years then technically the girls shouldn't exist."
Andy cleared his throat and tried to sit up a little taller, lacing his fingers with Prue. "The astral plane that I was trapped on is a mirror image of this one run by demons. So time here didn't change only I did"
"There still has to be a magical way to fix this" Prue interjected, "Maybe Ally and I can astral project and-" Her voice stopped at the feel of something hard against her hand. Looking down at her fingers she noticed a wedding ring on Andy's left ring finger.
"That's a ring….a wedding ring"
"Yes it is" Andy said softly watching the hurt well up in her eyes.
"But Andy…" She'd never given Andy a wedding ring. When they'd been married in the attic, they had used the promise ring that Andy had given Prue when she was seventeen. At the time he had opted to go without a ring. Even when they'd been remarried in park, after Amanda's birth, Prue insisted on having the same ring and forgone getting Andy one.
"Andy had married someone else? How could that be, how could he of all people do that her. Without another word, Prue jumped from her seat, making for the stairs.
"Prue! Prue!" Andy tried to follow but found himself too weak and feeble to keep pace. "Prue you don't understand!"
Small fires sprout all about the underworld as the Source flamed into the ceremonial chamber carrying his staff. A large snake was draped about his shoulders hissing lightening at the demons who were all kneeling, bowing at the Source's feet.
"You may rise" the master of all evil commanded taking a seat in his large garnet throne. "Bring forth the boy"
Two demons dressed in black robes bowed their heads and then retreated from the chamber where they soon returned with the Source's newest subject, Declan: Igoen, Declan's father, trailed behind staying mindful to keep his head low.
"We have brought the boy, your excellency" Shoving the boy, the demons stepped back in unison, leaving a young Declan fearful. In the back of Declan's mind he could only imagine why it was that the Source had called him forward again.
"Your Liege" Declan immediately dropped to one knee, respectfully offering his allegiance.
"Get up" the Source bellowed, "and come forward"
Declan stepped up to the garnet throne so that he was just one step below the Source.
"Let me see your hand" the Source directed extending his skeleton like palm. Tentatively, Declan placed his palm inside the Source's allowed the evil being to squeeze it.
"ARGH!" A mental horror of nightmarish pictures appeared in the boys mind: pictures of demons slaying women and small children, reeking destruction at the price of innocent lives.
"Just as I thought. His human emotions are making him weak!" The Source released Declan's hand, hurling him back towards his father's feet. Mandela, Declan's mother had once been human before becoming the Demonic Tracer. Igoen, Declan's father had been born half human, half demon, making his son, part mortal.
Both Declan and his father shuddered in fear as the Source rose from his chair, flexing his red wings. "He got his human emotion from you!" The Source raised his staff pointing directly at the boy's father and released a sizzling blast of energy.
"FATHER NO!" Helpless Declan could only watch and listen to his father's scream as the bolt of energy struck his chest, blasting him to pieces.
'You killed my father!" Declan dared to shout through teary eyes.
"It was what was necessary for you to succeed in claiming the life of the oldest Angelic One." The Source returned to his seat. "You must use this pain to claim victory" Three demons stepped up from the back, one carrying a crimson colored pillow which held and athame.
"Transmutate his blood" The Source ordered, watching as the demon with the free hands grabbed the young boy from behind bracing him into a headlock. The second demon then forced up Declan's sleeve making a jagged incision in his exposed forearm with the athame. Holding Declan's arm the steady the demon thrust it foreword up towards the Source. Blood dripped from Declan's arm onto the ground. The Source then laid his own bony hand above Declan's arm shooting an electrical silver beam into it.
Once again Declan screamed for all it was worth until the pupils of his eyes turned pitch black.
"It has been done! His human side has been destroyed, " The Source proclaimed raising his staff to signal rejoicing from the underlings. After the cheering the stopped the Source lowered his staff, looking directly at Declan.
"Now go claim your young bride to be"
Okay, I know that the plot with Piper seems similar to Styx Feet under but I promise it is going to be different and there is a specific purpose in having it in my over all plot. Nobody scream at me for what I did to Prue and Andy :)