Unwanted Legacies
Patricia Brianna had always wanted to help people, a desire that was ingrained at an early age. Her parents had always taught her that helping others was always the best route, no matter how small the deed was. Patty can still remember the deciding factor in her little ten year old brain that cemented her goal to study medicine.
Patty was in magic school with some of her cousins, they had been there for two days already as their mothers were out battling one of the last upper level demons in the underwold. She was sat in a couch in the library reading a book on myths when her mother orbed in with her aunt Phoebe while Paige orbed in with her aunt Piper. All four of them were barely hanging on and her mother looked at her and stated "Quick call Leo!"
Patricia looked scared and before she could open her mouth to call her uncle, he materialized and looked frantically to each woman. He turned to look at Patricia.
"Patty, get the emergency kit that is under the desk." She ran and before she knew it she was in front of the library desk picking up the overly heavy bag and walked as fast as she could. On her way back she notices that her uncle had placed her Aunt Paige in the couch she had been while laying both her mother and Aunt Piper side by side. In mere moments Wyatt and Chris had materialized and rushed to their mother. Leo had them both go to Paige and directed them to heal her.
Leo looked up and mentioned to Patty to move on quickly. She moved and landed next to her mother. Prue had gashes all over her face and arms with what looked like an athame imbedded on her side. Leo looked directly at her and clearly said. "Don't look at that, focused on cleaning and bandaging her wounds. We'll work on her soon." Patty nodded and did as her uncle was doing to her Aunt Piper.
At that moment Paige had been healed and Andy had orbed in. Paige's wounds were not fully healed, but she had been saved from certain death. "I'll be fine boys, thank you." Paige still had gashes and it look like she needed stiches in a long gash in her leg. At that moment her father spoke to her softly "Sweetie, its ok." Patty moved and gave her father space to start the healing process with Prue. She looked to her Aunt Phoebe who had been sitting next to Paige. She had been the lucky one to have been left with barely a scratch. She also noticed that her aunt Piper was sitting up and was hugging her boys. 'They must have healed her' she thought. But what caught her eyes was her uncle Leo stitching up her Aunt Paige gash on her leg. She walked up to take a closer look and somehow was mesmerized. Her uncle had long lost his powers and had become a mortal. He had only been granted orbing as it was needed to go and come from magic school. And here he was healing the magical without the coveted ability of healing.
She had realized at that moment that she could do so much in the world without having to call on a whitelighter and wait on them to help. That if she was properly trained, she could be the one helping someone stay alive long enough to get to a hospital or until a whitelighter did. She liked the idea of acquiring a skill that nobody in this family had, besides her uncle Leo. A skill that could lead to a life outside of the magical world and still make a huge impact by saving lives. Patricia Brianna was going to save lives and since the demon threat was basically nonexistent, she would save lives doing the next best thing: Studying medicine.
Her simple plan of course was crushed when two years ago, the elders had transferred the Power of Three to the next of kin, and unfortunately it wasn't a sibling trio, but a cousin trio. She had until that day been very happy with her life. She had her dream job, a magnificent boyfriend and freedom to do what she wanted. After the initiation, her powers advanced and she had a hard time controlling her newly acquired power of cryokinesis; she started lying to her boyfriend, Brian and her departures from dates and such were starting to take a toll. Sure the new power of three didn't have a lot to deal with, but there were still lower level demons bidding the work of some mysterious upper level demons and weather she liked it or not she and her cousins had to either be a part of a vanquish that Wyatt, Chris or Jr. had forced them to or help an innocent when Penny had gotten a vision.
She never quite understood why she was a destined Charmed one anyways. She was brought up with magic, but hardly used her gifts. She was adept to them, but didn't really have them mastered. The last two years she was forced to practice them, especially her astral projection and cryokinesis. Her astral projection had become stronger to the point of being able to channel her powers in her astral form. Her cryokinesis had been a source of misinformation as it was thought she would be channeling it how her ancestor had, solely through blowing air. Unfortunately for Patricia, she channeled her power through her eyes and breath, she would guide her icy breath with her eyes instead of with her hand. She hated that this power was at the beginning a pain to master.
Patricia didn't have a bond with her cousins, sure she loved them; but she just wasn't interested in becoming what her mother and her aunts became: The Charmed Ones – The most feared witches. She wasn't interested in that and that caused a lot bickering between her and Melinda. Patricia's rule was simple: "If you really need me, have everything ready to finish the job, otherwise don't bother me", a rule that Wyatt, Jr, Melinda or her parents broke all the time. She wanted order in her life, even the magical one, even if she knew deep down that it was never going to happen.
Penelope Cassandra always knew she would one day become a charmed one. She just felt it; it was a certainty within her that she just could not shake. She attributed this to her power of premonition and her dreams. The only other cousin that had been granted premonitions was her cousin Warren, but his were relatively odd, not as direct and without a headache and they were mostly in dream form, which he always stated was more like astral premonitions and empathy mixed with it.
Her claim to the charmed thrown was boasted by all as her mother was the only one with all girls. Prue had one girl and two boys. Piper had two boys and one girl and finally Paige had one boy and two girls. Phoebe had been filled with pride knowing that her daughters would be next. Penny took it upon herself to study the craft and her powers. Out of all of her cousins, beside Wyatt, Chris and Jr. she was the most advanced in her power. Her advancement upon receiving her charmed powers was astral premonitions and tapping into empathy in those visions. Other than that, she was fully equipped in all verses of the craft, and she was a skillful potions maker, a skill she learned from Chris.
Penny was excited to go along this journey with her sisters that it pained her to realize that only she would carry the legacy of her mother. Truth be told Patience was a bit relief as she wanted to focuse on her cupid heritage and Pearl didn't really know if she wanted to devote herself to the craft. Phoebe was crushed, but knew there was no sense in being mad and was extremely proud that Penny was the chosen one as she always knew Penny was destine for the role.
What Penny wasn't prepared for was the fact that she would have to play mediator to between her cousins. Patricia and Melinda never saw eye to eye and Penny was always the tie breaker. Patty was a natural leader and extremely assertive, much like her mother; while Melinda wasn't a pushover and liked to look at all options before deciding. This caused so many arguments that ultimately Penny would be the one to decide and was always left with the blame. It's not that she was a pushover; Penny just wished that both her cousins would listen to her or each other.
One of first innocent that had to be saved by the trio was a disaster. Penny had had the premonition of a possessor demon. These upper level demons had been thought obsolete until that premonition. It had been almost a month since the initiation and the cousins clearly didn't have a system. Patty wanted nothing to do with the issue since a simple potion could work. Melinda on the other hand had stood by Penny and helped her stake out the innocent, it wasn't until they were trying to come up with a plan that it was clear that Melinda wouldn't allow Patty to just skip out on all the important facets of the magical issues.
Melinda had just frozen the innocent who at the moment was possessed and ask for the potion to be thrown before the froze wore off. Patty at that moment had simply stated "I don't know why I was dragged to this if you two could handle it."
Melinda looked at her and put one hand down while saying "Seriously? Patty this isn't the time"
Penny looked between the possessed innocent and her cousins "You guys stop."
Patty bit her lip and just crossed her arms defiantly. Melinda was about to say something but the possessor demon became unfroze and Penny barely had a chance to warn them "Look out!"
Both Patty and Melinda looked as the possessor demon threw energy balls directed at them. Melinda froze one of the energy balls and the other one hit Penny on the shoulder throwing her back. Prue telekinetically threw the possessor demon back into a wall to give them time to run to Penny.
Penny grabbed her shoulder and mentioned to the broken vial of potion. "It's broke." Penny said wincing.
"It's ok, you brought another one right?" Patty asked.
Melinda scoffed and Penny answered "No, that's all I had time to bottle."
The demon was starting to stir awake and all three girls heard the commotion. "What do we do?" Patty asked. Melinda once again froze the demon to buy them some time.
"Penny calls Wyatt so he can heal you, Patty fling the stupid potion now." Melinda said while her hands were stretched out. Patty flung the potion telekinetically and Wyatt orbed.
"What happened?" He asked. As he kneeled down to heal Penny's shoulder.
"What happens every time." Penny said looking at both Melinda and Patty. Wyatt said something inaudible, finished healing Penny and orbed the group to the Attic Manor.
Wyatt looked at the three and stated "You know you guys need to learn how to work together. I don't understand what happened between you guys, before the charmed duties, you guys were great together at all this other stuff."
"Patty doesn't think she needs to be a part of any of this" Mel said crossing her arms.
"Mel thinks I should devote my life to all of this" Patty said running her fingers through her hair.
They turned pointedly to Penny and she looked at them "What? I love doing this."
Melinda chuckled and Patty rolled her eyes. Wyatt had had some stubborn charges before, but these three were going to be the death of him. "Just fix it. Learn how to work together, please. Before demons learn that you guys can't cooperate and start using that against you"
Ultimately she always chose what she thought was best from each cousin and set up the plan. Her life was consumed with the craft and her day job as they all would call their career of choice.
Penny's career of choice was teaching. History was her passion. How could it not, she lived amongst legends. She taught at Baker High and was always busy with her students. If she wasn't dealing with some charmed issue, helping the trio that was Wyatt, Chris and Jr; she was teaching, grading papers or helping students. Her entire life was either magical or school, there was no in-between and because of that she was the only Halliwell that wasn't as social. She had few trustworthy mortal friends and her cousins. She spilt her life in two and was always careful that either side wouldn't spill, even if that meant lying to her best friend, who happened to be her massive crush. Penny couldn't cross that bridge and prefer living two lives.
Melinda Prudence was the splitting image of her mother. The only Halliwell to have looked like a replica of a single parent. Nobody else in the family resembles a parent as much a Melinda did and it was a bit scary for the family. The only difference was that Melinda, unlike her mother at her age, was extremely assertive, resilient and independent. Melinda had always known what her families' true legacy would be, despite the magic. She knew that the most important aspect of her life would be helping others, directly or indirectly. She would always be part of a bigger picture and the world would never be the wiser. In the magical community her family was legendary, but in her mortal world Melinda was the wise craking English H.S teacher and she like that.
She had grown up in a relatively normal home. Sure, there was the occasional demon or threat growing up, but there was nothing out of the ordinary that would deem her to want to abandon her heritage like a cousin of hers. She didn't think she would be a Charmed one as everyone thought it would be Aunt Phoebes girls, boy was she wrong (along with the rest of the family). Up until that moment she had a simple life, a great social life and an extraordinary love life. Up until then that is.
After she was deemed a Charmed One, her world crumbled a bit. Her simple life became too hectic, her social life diminished due to the redundant work of a charmed one, which until now meant low level demons and innocents that basically delved into stuff they didn't know anything about. Her powers had grown and she was having a hard time controlling her Mol. Phasing. This power was completely new and was tied mostly to her emotions and how she was handling her emotions at the time made it nearly impossible to control it. It took her a while to master it and an even longer time mastering on others and items. And, finally that extraordinary love was extinguished. The man that she thought would understand her was all of a sudden scared. Her charmed duties took away and she did resent it a bit. As soon a she could she put the needed boundaries.
"I'm not handling this well. Jordan bailed. Completely bailed on me and I need time." Melinda had said crying with Penny.
"Don't worry; I'll take up the research. You worry about moving back into the Manor" Penny said hugging her cousin.
Melinda nodded and went back to packing her stuff and getting ready to move out of the apartment that she shared with her now ex-boyfriend of 3 years. Melinda took advantage that Penny loved doing the 'witch thing' so she would allow Penny to take the lead, besides Penny didn't mind and it was obvious that Patty didn't care.
Melinda loved the idea, but also realized that her simple life was gone. She didn't understand how Patty suppressed it so well to the point that nobody would believe that she was a witch, let alone a Charmed One and Penny was amazing at having a double life. But Melinda needed her worlds to blend perfectly in order for her to have a balance. Something that was easier said than done.
"I just want to have a balance" Melinda had told her mother once she realized she had developed feelings for Chace a sous chef working for Piper.
"Sweetie, balance is an illusion. All you can hope for is that all your choices make you the happiest" Piper had said pulling her daughters' hair behind her ear.
"It's a good thing he's a witch then" Melinda said smiling. Piper rolled her eyes.
"There will be no favoritism or anything of that sort. Chris will not like this. "Piper said sternly. Melinda nodded knowing what her mother meant. After all he worked for her mother and Chris was the lead chef and technically his supervisor.
Melinda tried her hardest to pretend that her life was balanced. She had her priorities and Charmed duties was not at the top.
"Mel, I need you to look in the book and see if you can find anything on power absorption. I think our innocent is witch" Penny said over the phone.
Melinda looked at her watch and rolled her eyes. "I'll be home in an hour, Ill look then. You should ask Patty or Wyatt"
"I already left Patty a message. She can't make it to the Manor in time because she is at the Community Clinic today. It's all the way across town AND Wyatt is already looking up her biological family for answers. You are the closest."
Melinda hated putting her life on hold like this. "Ill call you in an hour with what I can figure out"
"Ok." Penny said and hung up.
Melinda went back to her date with Chace.
It wasn't that Melinda didn't help or that she was selfish, she just wanted balance. She knew Penny would be mad and that Patty would check in when she could, but there wasn't a life or death emergency, and hour wasn't that much to ask.
And so, Melinda became so enthralled in her normal balanced life that she would leave all the work to Penny and help if she could. Besides, Penny had the boys on her side. They would do anything for their favorite cousin.
Melinda's priorities worried her parents and tried to talk to her and Melinda would always say that she didn't want to end up like Aunt Prue, her grandmother or great-grandmother. The Halliwell stubbornness was at an all-time high when it came to Melinda and her normal life taking precedence to her witch life. Her rebuttal was always the same: "I'm always there and ready for when Im needed. " It was true once the plan would be laid out and the research done, she was always ready to help finish their Charmed duties. It's just that she had a warped system that until this day worked, because she was at least giving a bit more than Patty.
All three of them viewed their place and the importance of their charmed duties extremely differently and soon they would have to make decisions that would either make or break them and at the same time impact the world around them. Up to this point they had been given a little over two years to create a strong charmed bond and to mster their newly acquired gifts, but they had made no real progress in the bond and their powers were simply a reflection of how well they trained. The big question was simple: Are they ready for what was to come? The answer was plain simple: No, and everyone knew it especially those consorting in the dark hidden caverns of the underworld.