Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Agh, writer's block is going to kill me! And school's around the corner! Forgive me if it's a while before you see the next chapter. But then again...
Star Fata, Fire Dolphin: Thanks, and here's your update.
Phantom Rogue: Glad you liked it. I was getting tired of the same unrealistic reasons people made up for Kimberly's letter so I just had to make it like this.
Ashley Hammond Astro Yellow: Yes, it's finally resolved. Ahem, you're dying at my hand? Have you not been reading the reviews I sent you? You're killing us! Oh yeah, give me two more chapters and I promise, you'll get your A/A moment. And hurry up with your story! Ahem, yeah...
Enjoy!
Chapter 11:
Kimberly pulled the Australian blonde into the house, wondering what could've happened for the abrasion on Katherine's arm. "Are you okay? What happened," she repeated.
"I've no idea," Katherine answered, seeming a little unfocused in her new surroundings. "I was heading toward the airport right outside of San Francisco back to London from visiting some friends when it was like time froze completely. Then these three chicks dressed in black leather popped out of nowhere and started throwing something like ninja stars at me. Since when did random chicks in leather start throwing ninja stars? They were scaring the hell out me!"
Katherine looked a bit crazed and shaken up from the incident. Kimberly started unwinding the gauzy wrap that was doing a bad job of stopping the blood from gushing out from Katherine's arm. If what she thought had happened actually did, she'd have to take some time to heal the wound. "What else happened, Kat? How did you get this huge cut?"
"I dodged whatever those things were they were throwing at me, but after a while I got tired. I'm just not cut out for dodging little things that can kill me anymore. I think it made them mad, though, because a dagger showed up in one of the girl's hands and she practically hacked the thing toward me. I jumped out of the way, but obviously I got hit and fell on the floor. They came over to pick me up and drag me somewhere."
"How'd you get free?"
"Something inside told me to fight back and I did. It took a lot of energy, but I eventually knocked them down. When they were down, I ran away and by the time they got back up, time suddenly jumped back into action. I ran to a phone and called Tanya to pick me up. I told her to drive me to your house as quickly as possible. She tried to bandage up my arm but it was a little impossible with all the driving and the panic. I told her to come here since I thought you guys might know who those crazy women were."
"Wait, where's Tanya," Ashley asked, not remembering her predecessor showing up with Katherine.
"She should be-" Katherine was cut off by a scream from outside their house.
"Guess we got our answer," Taylor remarked before grabbing Ashley's hand and shimmering to the driveway of their house where she figured Tanya would be fighting off whatever demons showed up.
Kimberly kept her attention on her friend. "Here, relax," she advised while pushing Katherine slowly onto the couch in the living room. "Now, I'm going to have to heal your arm. You literally won't feel a thing and it won't change anything except fix the wound, so don't worry. I promise, it won't hurt at all. Could you tell me anything else you remember about those girls that attacked you?"
"That's all I can remember," Katherine answered, her face telling Kimberly that she was sorry she couldn't help her.
"It's okay," Kimberly reassured, giving a friendly smile to show her understanding. "I know it's pretty hard to focus on whoever's trying to kill you when you're fighting for your life." She continued to focus her power on healing Katherine, finishing quicker than she thought. To her annoyance, a scar remained and it appeared to be permanent. "Sorry, I can't get rid of the scar; the cut made it hard to heal everything."
"It's okay," Katherine returned, smiling back at her friend who could never shake her compassionate nature. "The fact you stopped my arm from bleeding is a miracle."
"Hey, if I'm stuck with whitelighter powers, I might as well put them to good use." Making sure there were no other injuries on Katherine, Kimberly scanned her mind for any possible demons, with ninja stars moreover, who could've attacked Katherine. Suddenly, an idea struck her. "Wait, Kat, were these attackers all blonde?"
Taking a moment to remember, Katherine finally nodded, wondering what their hair color had to do with who they were. She shook her head 'yes' again when Kimberly asked if the blondes were definitely in black leather and threw Katherine's portrayed 'ninja stars'. From what Katherine saw of Kimberly's facial expression, understanding dawned on the ranger-turned-witch.
"You know who they are," Katherine asked abruptly.
"I think so," Kimberly answered. "Though I don't know why demonatrixes would want to hurt you, unless they figured you're a hotter blonde than all of them combined," Kimberly finished with a small laugh, hoping to lighten whatever situation they were in.
"Demon-what?"
"Demonatrixes," Kimberly repeated. "They're female demonic assassins who happen to be blonde and use throwing stars, though occasionally they'll find use for daggers and knives. Even though they'll kill anyone who's evil, they're still technically demons. But they don't attack someone without good reason, which is why I'm confused why they attacked you. You have practically no ties to the magical world."
"Except you," Katherine pointed out.
"But still. Unless…" Kimberly didn't like the first possible explanation that came to mind. It meant more trouble… for everyone. "Oh, crap."
"What? What is it?" Alarm returned to Katherine's face when she heard Kimberly's last words. She was still confused when her friend ran out the door, leaving her to follow in pursuit.
The next thing she saw was Tanya rushing to her side, both watching the Charmed Ones battle with the same women who attacked Katherine back at the airport. She knew her friends would eventually trounce the three leather-clad blondes, but she wanted to figure out what was going on behind the random attacks. She decided to focus on the skirmish between the two groups of women, personally happy the demonatrixes were losing their ground to her friends.
"Yo, queen bitch," Taylor yelled to no demonatrix in particular, "over here."
When two of the three demons turned to her, Taylor threw a fireball at the closest one. The imp dodged the sphere but lost grip of her throwing stars in the process, which Kimberly took control of with her telekinesis. Kimberly decided to finish this once and for all, thanking Taylor for remembering what Wyatt told them about the time his aunts encountered the same assassins.
"Later, babes," Kimberly said, throwing the sharpened weapons at their owners, relieved when all three erupted into flames and disappeared soon after. "I'm getting tired of this."
"Of what," Ashley asked, her breath slowly catching a steady pace.
"Of people popping up to attack our friends only to find out they just want to mess with us," Kimberly answered, equally as out of breath as her sisters.
Taylor pulled her hair out of her face to tie it into a ponytail, her effort in the recent fight causing the air around her to feel more humid. "What are you talking about?"
"I'll explain inside."
Similar sighs left both Ashley and Taylor when Kimberly finished explaining her theory to the four other girls present in the family room. When they considered how well Kimberly could utilize her sensing ability and how well she could build the right theory when she focused, they didn't like the implications of her speculation. They silently thanked her for giving them something to prepare for but that did not help the fact they had to fight more than they were used to. Not to mention they had to find a way to protect all their friends somehow while making sure they were all within close distance since they could be attacked at any moment with no way of protecting themselves against beings with magical abilities. For a long while, Taylor and Ashley hoped Kimberly was terribly wrong this time.
"So you're saying," Taylor started, knowing her sarcasm would kick in now or later when she thought over this conversation, "we should get ready for every ranger from our teams to either come knocking on our doors or have our phones ringing off the hooks after arbitrary demons attack them?"
"Basically," Kimberly nodded, unhappy that she couldn't contradict her answer or Taylor's question.
"All because we told them the truth about us," Ashley continued, stating more than asking.
"Well, it's more because we 'exposed' the magical world to them rather than told them the truth," Kimberly clarified. "Either way, we're screwed."
"My, what a wonderful thought," Taylor said, taking up her place as the sardonic one of the group.
"Mm-hmm," Ashley and Kimberly grumbled into the air to agree with Taylor's distaste.
For moments, they just stared into space, each of them thinking of possible events to happen, all to their chagrin. They nearly forgot there were two other young women in their presence before Katherine spoke suddenly.
"I'm sorry, you guys."
They three witches turned immediately to the voice, wondering why Katherine would say such a thing. "Sorry? For what," Kimberly asked.
"For doing this to you guys," the ex-Pink Zeo Ranger answered. "It seems I'm a source of problems every time I show up needing help."
Cautiously, she turned to head toward Kimberly, her face saying sorry for everything she had ever done to the retired gymnast. The sentiment made Kimberly feel guilty. She had told Katherine several times that her apologies were more than enough and making anymore was unnecessary. She even threatened to slap Katherine once if she ever apologized to her again because of their past, which didn't seem to hinder the requests of forgiveness. She honestly had no idea what she had done to cause Katherine the constant guilt that the girl felt she could never escape from.
Kimberly took one of Katherine's hands in one of her own. "Katherine," she said softly, feeling her tone developing into a pleading one, "Please don't do this. It was so long ago and it never even bothered me that much. You're putting too much on yourself and I don't want you to ever feel this guilty." She searched Katherine's face, hoping that her friend would take her words to heart. Finding the smallest of acceptance on Katherine's face, she smiled. "Besides, I know for a fact you're not a source of trouble. I'm glad you came to us today; you gave us something to get ready for."
"But what do you do now," Katherine brought up, not wanting to take the girls' attention from their objective at hand, whatever it was.
Ashley, Taylor and Kimberly looked from one sister to the other, searching for an answer. When they couldn't find one, all three shrugged. The action was becoming too common among the three.
"Get a huge first-aid kit?" Taylor suggested with a light tone, a smirk ready to play on her lips.
"Find bigger housing?" Ashley added with a genuinely amused smile, despite the situation.
At Ashley's suggestion, more loud knocks were thrown onto the front doors and all five women jumped up at the unexpected noise. Hearing a very audible 'Ow, damn it' from a partially familiar voice on the other side of the door, they had a good guess of what to expect.
"I think Taylor's suggestion of a first-aid kit might come in handy," Kimberly said before going to open the front door.
Making her way from the kitchen to the sun room-turned-meeting area, Taylor made her way to the rangers who came knocking on the front door with various injuries after being assailed by unknown demons. She was glad to finally reach the coffee table when she felt like she was about to drop the trays with plates of assorted food Kimberly made as impromptu refreshments. Her annoyance grew when she had to slap away the hands reaching for the food, not surprised that the hands belonged to the guys who undoubtedly considered constant eating a priority.
"Hey, hey, HEY!" she yelled. "Watch it, before you break the table, for which you will burn in hell for if I have anything to say about it," Taylor warned. She couldn't help her smug smirk when the guys began retreating, all of a sudden patiently waiting for her to leave. As she expected, though, as soon as she entered the dining room that sat between the sun room and the kitchen, the guys dove in for the food, grabbing the portions they wanted instantly.
In the kitchen, which Kimberly threw any one out of if they didn't reside in the house, Ashley was busy trying to pry Kimberly from the stove and cooking any more refreshments for the growing crowd in the family and sun room. Taylor tried to help Ashley, but Kimberly was vehement in her refusal. Finally, the two younger witches decided to resort to drastic measures. They nearly laughed at the scream Kimberly gave when Ashley caused one of the pots to blow up and Taylor threw a fireball at the wooden spatula in Kimberly's hand.
"What they hell did you do that for," she basically whined, anger burning in the glare she directed at her sisters.
Several ex-rangers appeared at the kitchen doorway, thinking they heard a distress call from Kimberly instead of a normal scream. Their near entrance and question if everything was all right earned them a unanimous 'just fine' from the girls accompanied by a stiff glare from the three when they didn't leave. Once the people gathered at the kitchen entrance left, Kimberly continued on her rant as to why her sisters ruined her current cooking.
"Someone explain to me why you two just ruined the result, a very good result might I add, of my last fifteen minutes' work."
"You're going crazy with cooking," Taylor stated, her tone revealing that she was finished with the subject, or so she thought.
"I am not," Kimberly disagreed.
"Yes, you are," Ashley countered. "Kim, your little idea of cooking up quick refreshments is becoming a cooking show."
"I'm just being a good host."
"They've got plenty of food," Taylor unhappily returned to the conversation. "Besides, this Mama Bear side of you kind of scares me."
"Well, I'm not going to let all our friends starve after they've been attacked because of us," Kimberly crossed her arms in indignation.
Ashley grabbed Kimberly's arm and began dragging her out of her culinary sanctuary. "We've got, like, twenty bags of chips in the pantry. Now come on, we've got bigger things to do, like figure out why everyone we know is getting assaulted by demons."
"Fine," Kimberly acquiesced, shrugging off her sister's hold on her arm when she reached the dining room.
Calling everyone's attention, Kimberly, Ashley and Taylor stood at the archway that served as a doorway between the sun room and dining room. Everyone turned their attention to the three, most of them slightly taken aback to see Kimberly finally out of the kitchen she put off limits.
"All right, we all pretty much know why we're here," she started off, earning a lot of shaking heads. "Well, we know the general reason. We're really sorry you guys got attacked by these demons; we know it's our fault."
"Trust us," Ashley took her turn, "we're trying our best to figure it out. We hate that all of you got hurt because of us."
"We just need a little more time," Taylor continued, rethinking her words instantly. "Actually, we need a lot more time but we promise we'll get to the bottom of this, though we already have some theories, I guess."
When several questions as to what conjectures arose, Kimberly described the possible speculation she formed when Katherine and Tanya came to the house earlier that evening. As far as she and her sisters had discussed, they guessed the Underworld was unleashing their anger toward the Charmed Ones for causing one of their higher demons to disclose the smallest of clues as to who was after them. They could have also chosen to flaunt their abilities against previous saviors of the world who had no way of defending themselves. Or maybe they just wanted to play a horribly mean joke on their mortal enemies.
"Just the perfect welcome back to the job after being assaulted at the reunion," a voice murmured only loud enough to reach the girls' ears. Taylor turned around to see Eric staring at nothing in particular, knowing it was him who spoke and slapping his shoulder in admonishment.
"Anyway," she diverted from Eric's comment, "we think it's safe to say you guys shouldn't be anywhere alone. We may not be sure why these demons are attacking you guys when you didn't do anything, but we know they'll take another shot if they can, which will happen if any of you are by yourselves."
"Moreover," Ashley continued, "if things continue the way they are, it would be safer for all of you to stay close to us, since we can stop most of the demons that try to hurt you guys."
"Most?" Carlos asked a few feet away from his former teammate.
"Yeah," Ashley answered. "Some demons we can kill simply by using our powers, but there are a lot that we have to get rid of using the Power of Three. The Power of Three is when Taylor, Kimberly and I use our strength as witches to kill a demon. Usually, it's by finding a spell that requires the Power, or making one when there isn't already one that works."
"That being said, we came up with two alternatives that would work, though they would constrain either us or you guys," Kimberly pronounced to the group. "One thing we could do is you guys could call for us whenever y'all are attacked by demons, but it would only work if you called out either my name or Wyatt's, since only whitelighters are capable of hearing distress calls from their charges."
"I thought you were a witch," Rocky said aloud, "not a whitelighter or whatever that is."
"I am, but my powers are those of whitelighter," Kimberly explained, knowing it wouldn't be enough to clear any confusion. "It's a little complicated; I'll explain later. Anyway, that would be one choice. Of course, the problem is that only Wyatt and I would hear you and we're not too sure that would even work, since you guys aren't really our charges. Plus, we'd have to orb and shimmer and run to wherever you are at the moment and that would be a problem if many others were in trouble at the same time."
Hearing the difficulties the first choice entailed, everyone decided to chuck that option out the window. "What about the other one," several asked.
"The other one," Ashley began, "would be asking for a compromise from all of you. Since we'd all have to be close just in case you guys are in danger, it might be a good idea to stay in San Francisco, just until all this is resolved."
For seconds that felt like hours for the Charmed Ones, nothing but silence reigned the two rooms before discussions broke out in voices barely higher than whispers. To their surprise, the girls found almost no words of opposition to the idea. Of course, there were the questions of how long the stay would be and where everyone would stay, both of which were voiced quickly after the suggestion was made.
"We don't know how long this is going to last," Ashley answered apologetically. "It could last from a week to a month."
"Or longer, knowing how demons work," Taylor added sardonically.
"It would be too much to ask y'all to check into hotels for that time," Kimberly considered aloud, thinking of any other alternatives at the moment.
"They could always stay with you three," a voice said from the staircase. Everyone turned their heads to see Wyatt Halliwell making his was down the stairs followed by his brother. Everyone was instantly bemused at the rationale of his words.
"What do you mean stay with us," Taylor asked once the two reach her and her sisters. "There isn't enough room in the house."
"And how did you guys know what we were even talking about?" Ashley brought up. "You two weren't even here for the entire day."
"Do you really need to ask that?" Chris queried with an amused expression.
"Never mind," the three answered.
"There's definitely enough room," Wyatt argued, "if you guys split up and use the houses on this street bequeathed to Chris and me by my mother's friends."
"Wait, when did you guys get more houses," Ashley asked, never recalling any mention of extra housing.
"Remember the elderly couple across the street?" Wyatt inquired. "Last year, the husband passed away and the widow wanted to move to New Mexico with their daughter but they didn't want just anyone to have the house so she gave the deed to the house to us."
"But why?"
"Apparently, she remembered what our mom and aunts did for her and felt grateful for everything so she did this as a sort of repayment," Chris expanded. "We didn't take it right away. We had to convince her to let us pay seventy-five thousand for the house; she wouldn't let us go any higher. She felt like she was taking too much from us and it took us forever to convince her that she wasn't."
"It's pretty much the same with the other two houses we… inherited, for lack of a better word," Wyatt shrugged. "And as luck would have it, they're all across the street. How could you three never remember this?"
"Are you sure you never hid this from us," Kimberly asked, crossing her arms in question.
Ashley and Taylor felt this coincidence was too convenient and felt the need to express their suspicion. "Don't you think it's just the slightest bit weird that you guys got three houses right across your own from people who wanted to give it to you for no reason," Taylor inquired.
Chris and Wyatt couldn't do anymore than shrug. "Maybe it has to do something with why you guys were chosen as the Charmed Ones," Chris mused aloud.
"That makes absolutely no sense," Taylor maintained.
"It might be tied to why your friends were attacked by these demons," Wyatt continued. "You know, something to do with your destiny."
"I hate that word," Taylor commented, Kimberly and Ashley agreeing quickly after.
"Even so," Chris interjected, "you three have to get to the bottom of this and you need your friends close, or who knows what will happen to them. I'm sure there's plenty of room if you split up and take a house; it's not like we'll kick you guys out or anything."
The girls silently considered the proposal, finding nothing wrong with the idea. "It's not a bad suggestion," Kimberly deliberated.
"It would give us room for everyone so we'll be close if a demon attacks," Ashley agreed.
"No argument here," Taylor added. "So I guess that means we'll take that idea, if you guys don't have any problems with it," she turned to everyone else around them.
As all the other former Power Rangers deliberated, a consensus formed in support of the idea. However, there was the predicament that it was nearly eleven at night and most of them were too exhausted to plan for anything else. The girls decided that there was enough room in the house for the nineteen people present for the night; if not, they would make room. Putting up no fight, Ashley, Kimberly and Taylor returned to the kitchen to see what they could whip up for a late-night dinner for eighteen people while their former teammates made phone calls to clear out anything they had planned in their towns of residence.
Following cleaning up after dinner, Kimberly, Ashley and Taylor tried to allot the sleeping arrangements, finding it an unnecessary task and going straight to gathering enough pillows and blankets. Leaving it up to everyone else to decide the sleeping layout, all the males, save for the Halliwell brothers, chose to sleep downstairs spread out through the living, family and sun room along with Katherine and Tanya. Alyssa and Trini would take Kimberly's room while Karone and Cassie occupied Chris's for the night. Wyatt and Chris ended up in Wyatt's room and Taylor, Ashley and Kimberly wound up in the large room Ashley and Taylor shared.
After she made sure everyone was okay with their placement for the night, Kimberly went upstairs to Taylor and Ashley's room. She found it easy to fall onto the bed and felt the pull of sleep dragging her into slumber, but something kept her awake. Finding no instant sleep, she spoke to her sisters. "You think everything will work out?"
"Of course it will," Taylor assured, though worry was evident in her tone, much to Kimberly and Ashley's worry. "Everything always does."
"It'll all work out," Ashley echoed. Yet when she lifted her head from her pillow, she found, even in the dark, her sisters looking back at her and at each other, the same look of slight apprehension mirrored in their eyes. We have to get through this, Ashley told herself. We've always gotten through everything and we're not going to fail now.
As they finally found enough ease to sleep, a sudden loud thud came from downstairs followed by some voices that were obviously male yelling at each other briefly, though their words weren't harsh enough to be considered hostile. The girls in the room rolled their eyes, guessing the other girls in the house were doing the same.
"How much y'all want to bet that thump was because of Zack," Kimberly said, a chuckle coming quickly after.
"I've got my money on Zhane," Ashley said with a smirk.
"I say it's every guy down there," Taylor retorted, getting laughs from both her sisters.
They were two seconds from sleeping when another thud came from downstairs. The girls couldn't help but share the same thought: it was going to be one long night.