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The Guardians of Magic

Ever since her sisters had come into her life, Paige had come to expect unusual days, but she felt safe assuming that even Prue had never experienced something on this scale. She had heard the stories of her sisters' trip to the past to ensure that Melinda Warren was born in the first place, and obviously she had that whole experience with her own past life, but the idea that she was currently in a completely new reality was a new kind of strange that she wasn't sure how to deal with.

She could certainly understand why Doctor Strange had decided to try and create a team to fight the Empirikul, but she was sure she wasn't the only one wondering why this particular group had been brought together. Right now, the group were speculating that Ginny, Angel and the Vision had only been brought along because they'd been in contact with the people who had actually been the target of Strange's spell, but that still didn't explain why Harry and Mildred in particular had been chosen when they were just kids. That stuff about 'sensing the balance' sounded good, but it was always possible that he only thought everything 'felt' right when bringing them together…

Still, for the moment, Paige was trying to focus on her role as a teacher, and in many ways it was interesting to see what the younger members of their group were capable of. Angel, Wanda, Dave and Merlin had basically taken up positions around the trailer to be prepared in case someone tried to attack while the others were away, and Paige had decided to at least see what the kids were capable of. Willow had freely admitted that she was still working on using magic 'in the field' and had so far only performed a few rituals in a safe environment, so she wasn't sure what use she'd be at this point, but from what she'd shared her magic seemed to be the most similar to what Paige was familiar with. Her fellow redhead didn't seem to have 'natural' power like Paige or her sisters, but hopefully Paige could adapt her own experience to find what Willow could do.

As for the younger kids, Mildred had demonstrated a few spells, but she clearly had some confidence issues about her own magical abilities, even if Paige admired her ability to come up with rhymes on the spot. Ginny had shown a couple of interesting spells, but she'd been very timid about it, and the way she stayed close to Harry suggested there was something going on that they weren't ready to share with the rest of the group yet. Harry had demonstrated a few charms and spells for the others, sometimes engaging in practice 'duels' with Ginny to give a better show of himself. Stuff like a Tickling Charm or a spell that made the target dance felt a bit childish, but Paige could see them being useful at catching the other party off-guard if nothing else.

"OK," she nodded at Harry as he fired off a Disarming blast that knocked Ginny's wand out of her hand, ending the current training session. "That was… some interesting spells there, anyway."

"Thanks," Harry smiled at her as he settled into one of the comfy chairs they'd found in another part of the expanded trailer. "I haven't done much actual duelling so far, but I picked up a few things at this duelling club earlier this year…"

"Lockhart had something useful to teach?" Ginny looked at Harry with a brief smile as she picked up her wand from where it had fallen.

"Even if he basically just served as an example of what not to do," Harry observed, even as Ginny blushed fiercely and turned her head away.

"He… wasn't a good teacher?" Mildred looked curiously at the two.

"In my first lesson with him Lockhart released a cage full of Cornish pixies in the classroom and then had no idea how to actually round them back up," Harry said, chuckling briefly at the memory. "I actually learned before… well, all this… that he'd actually earned his reputation by using Memory Charms to erase peoples' memories so he could take credit for their own achievements."

"Someone can do that?" Paige looked at Harry in shock.

"That's… yikes," Willow swallowed slightly as she glanced around the room. "I mean, I don't exactly like the whole idea of erasing memories, but doing it for that…"

"Can I just- they let someone who did all that teach at a school?" Paige stared at Harry. "And they didn't realise he was using his magic for something that… evil?"

"Evil?" Harry repeated. "I mean, I agree that it was bad, but…"

"Lockhart wasn't exactly a Dark wizard, he was just a vain idiot…" Ginny mumbled, still looking away from Harry as though she'd lost her earlier confidence. "There's a difference…"

"There is?" Paige looked at the girl in surprise. "So some people just… do that kind of thing in your world and nobody minds?"

"There are a few Unforgiveable spells that will almost always earn someone a life sentence in prison, but most of the time… well, so long as you're careful about when you use it, there aren't many spells that are that bad," Ginny said, the redhead's voice still low.

"That's… huh," Paige looked around the children for a moment before she shook her head. "OK, different rules for magic… but seriously, no personal gain rule?"

"Personal gain rule?" Mildred asked, picking up Tabby and scratching the cat behind the ears as she looked curiously at Paige.

"Back in my world, if you use magic to help yourself in any way it can backfire on you," Paige explained. "I mean, it's not so bad if we're just using our default powers, like me orbing when I'm late or Piper freezing things to give herself extra time to work something out, but if we actually use a spell for something that's not related to fighting evil… well, it gets complicated."

"Like how?" Harry asked.

"The worst case I ever heard of was when my sisters- before I met them- had to save my sister Piper after she was infected by a rare virus," Paige explained, grimly recalling the tale of that dark event in the Haliwells' lives. "Curing her with magic triggered an outbreak of that same virus; they had to take the spell back in order to stop it, and then… well, Piper was saved by her future husband, but it cost him his powers for a few months."

"He lost his powers?" Willow repeated. "What powers and why would he lose them if he was helping her?"

"He was our family Whitelighter even before he married Piper," Paige explained. "He was basically a guardian angel who gives us advice and heals people if they've been injured by evil."

"Neat," Mildred smiled.

"Yeah, it is," Paige nodded before she continued (this wasn't the time to talk about how Leo had died to become a Whitelighter). "Anyway, he had powers like orbing and healing- I'm still working on the healing part but I'm fairly good at orbing- but because he broke the rules to save Piper from something non-magical, he had his powers taken away for a while until he managed to appeal to get them back during another crisis."

"…Your world has very complicated rules," Willow observed. "I mean, from what I've read in Giles' books, making magic work can be tricky, but I don't remember anything about personal gain being a full-time issue… there were rumours of a few cases where that kind of thing was a problem, and casting bigger spells can require some kind of trade-off, but there's not a fixed rule for everything…"

"And we just have to keep it secret from the muggles," Ginny put in. "We can't do anything big, but we've used magic for stuff like packing luggage if we want."

"Mug- non-magical people, right?" Mildred said.

"Right," Harry nodded at her. "It's all right to tell muggles if they're related to a witch or wizard, and most people don't have a problem with wizards marrying muggles so long as they're trustworthy, but it's generally agreed that it's best to keep it all secret."

"Seems like something all of our worlds share," Paige observed with a smile. "I mean, OK, it sounds like Wanda and Billy are fairly public where they come from, but it also sounds like they don't go around calling what they do 'magic'."

"Except for… Merlin," Ginny whispered, glancing over at where the young man with the famous name was currently pacing near the door.

"Yeah, but considering that it sounds like things aren't that good for magic-users in his version of Camelot, that's a pretty good reason for the rest of us to keep it secret," Paige observed, recalling Merlin's brief talk of how magic was forbidden back where he came from. "Still kind of sucks, though…"

"Uh… Miss Matthews?" Mildred asked, raising a cautious hand as she looked at the older witch.

"Firstly, feel free to call me Paige; I might be your teacher right now but if we're on a team it seems stupid not to let you use my name," Paige smiled encouragingly at Mildred.

"Right… Paige," Mildred nodded, even as she gave Paige a slight smile before she indicated the Book of Shadows, which was now positioned on a podium similar to where it lay in the attic. "Can… we read that?"

"Read it?" Paige repeated, looking uncertainly at the Book for a moment before she smiled. "Well… why not?"

Mildred gave her a brief smile before she opened the Book, the other three students gathering around her to study it as well. For a moment Paige wondered if she should help them find something, but then the Book's pages began to turn themselves and she allowed herself a smile.

"Wow…" Mildred grinned at the Book, but her expression faltered as she looked over and saw Harry and Ginny looking at it with a new sense of apprehension. "Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly, but we… there was a bad experience with a book that… wasn't quite what it seemed," Harry said, placing an arm around Ginny in a manner that told Paige there was far more to the story than the obvious.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that here," Paige smiled reassuringly at them. "I happen to know that the only thing turning those pages are my ancestors."

"Your ancestors?" Mildred looked at Paige curiously.

"Oh yeah; we've even summoned their spirits a few times," Paige's smile grew. "That was actually one of the first things Piper and Phoebe ever showed me; they cast a spell to let me talk with my mom for the first time."

"You mean… this Book can bring people back to life?" Harry looked at it with a new sense of respect.

"It's more like it calls their spirits back, and they don't come back for good, just so long as… well, as long as we need their advice," Paige shrugged.

"Still…" Harry looked at the Book with a new sense of longing that reminded Paige she was talking to a boy who'd been orphaned before he could even remember his parents.

"Uh… if we're sharing magical books, would you be interested in… this?" Willow said, picking up a book she'd been studying earlier and passing it to Paige. "I mean, your book seems to be pretty cool, but if we're working together, maybe you could… see what another one has to show you?"

"I'd be up for that," Paige smiled encouragingly at Willow as she took the offered book and opened it. The more old-style writing was a little harder to read at first- Paige wondered if something about the Book of Shadows updated its writing style so that it was easier for Melinda's descendants to read it- but as she studied more of the simple rituals and invocations Willow had previously studied, Paige was intrigued to note some of the similarities in the younger witch's spells and the magic she was familiar with. Most of the spells were written in Latin or similar older languages, as opposed to how most of the spells in the Book followed a rhyming pattern, but some of the finer details, such as candles and ingredients, definitely reminded Paige of some of the bigger spells she'd performed with Piper and Phoebe…

The sense of something brushing against her leg made Paige jump for a moment, but she relaxed as she realised that it was Mildred's cat rubbing against her leg. Smiling at the sensation, Paige reached over to rub the cat's head behind the ears, looking up to confirm that the bird that came with Harry and Ginny was still perched on top of the weapons cabinet, looking around the room with its strange sense of alert serenity. Recalling how it had been introduced as a phoenix, Paige wondered how those birds differed from the phoenixes of her world; she was fairly sure the Book had mentioned that they were just treated as wild animals back home…

"How's it going?"

"What?" Paige looked up to see Dave Stutler standing near her, looking curiously at the other younger members of the group as they continued to read through the Book of Shadows. "Uh… not too bad, I think; just giving them a chance to look up the background details…"

"Background details?"

"The Book has records of some of the demons and other threats my sisters and I have dealt with over the years," Paige explained, putting her own current reading material aside as the young man sat down beside her. "I mean, I get that we probably can't use each other's magic based on how we all seem to be different, but it can't hurt to give everyone a taste of what we can all do…"

"No, that makes sense," Dave nodded with a smile, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small leather-bound book. "I should probably share this too; it's my Encantus."

"Seems a bit-" Paige began, before Dave seemed to open the book and it literally doubled in size, folding it outwards a few more stages before it became the size of the Book of Shadows. "OK, that is cool."

"Yeah," Dave nodded at her. "I have to admit, it's kind of odd to see you all using actual verbal spells; I basically just have to really will something to happen… I mean, there's a bit more to it than that, but that's basically where it all starts for me."

"Huh," Paige nodded in thought. "That could be something to look into when we have time…"

"You mean see if any of our spells match up?"

"Bingo," Paige nodded at the student. "Maybe we all have different ways of doing things, but do we have any spells that do the same thing in our worlds?"

This potentially interesting train of thought was interrupted when the trailer door opened and the rest of the newly-appointed Guardians of Magic came walking briskly through it, Nick and Emma holding elaborate guns and the Vision carrying a smaller object in his hands.

"What happened?" Wanda asked, walking over to Vision with an anxious expression. "Are you all right?"

"We are well," Vision smiled reassuringly at her.

"As much as anyone can be when we realise we've been recruited to be the David to an entire army of Goliaths…" Kenzi muttered.

"…Big army, huh?" Dave asked apprehensively.

"They've got a lot going for them, anyway," Emma nodded at the young man as she laid her weapon down on a table. "We were nearly caught by a couple of hunters who were able to identify Bo as a creature of magic with that scanner."

"Scan- that thing?" Willow interrupted herself as she noticed the object in the Vision's hand. "You… that can detect magic?"

"Or at least it can detect magical beings," Vision observed.

"Considering that the guys who came for us explicitly thought we'd shown up to basically leave Bo with the local army, we can probably assume that we were right about the rest of us not being 'conventional' magic," Tommy put in.

"I wonder what that means for my own abilities?" Billy put in, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I mean, am I just not the kind of magic they're looking for, or is it like we thought and I'm a loophole because I can only do that one 'spell' where I change?"

"It's something to think about, anyway," Nick nodded at Billy before he addressed the ceiling. "But if we're going to do this any further, we need to talk to Strange again."

"Again?" Angel looked curiously at the detective. "Didn't we already confirm he wasn't-?"

"He couldn't answer our questions then; we have new ones to ask him now," Nick clarified, even as he kept his gaze on the ceiling of the expanded trailer interior. "Is there anything we should know about the timing of your own encounter with the Empirikuul?"

"Yes."

"I thought so," Nick said, looking almost casually at the transparent figure that appeared in the heart of their base, initially surrounded by a green glow that swiftly faded. "We saw a public broadcast identifying the Empirikuul's next target as a world where you were its greatest magical figure."

"And you wonder how this fits in to what I told you about my own history with the Empirikuul?"

"Yes," Nick nodded.

"As you may have guessed, I have not simply summoned you all from different time periods," Strange explained with a slight smile. "I have also sent you to the world of the Empirikuul at a point before they attacked my own reality."

"…You're kidding," Dave looked at Strange with a tentative grin. "We've been sent back in time?"

"Essentially yes," Strange nodded.

"That's- uh... won't that cause all kinds of problems?" the college student looked cautiously at the projection. "I mean, if we pull this off and stop these guys before they can invade your world… why would you have done all this in the first place?"

"An astute question, Dave Stutler," Strange nodded at the young man. "But that is one of the benefits of my own powers; I can place myself outside of Time to a degree that protects me from such changes to history."

"Like… you exist a bit outside of time?" Paige looked cautiously at Strange. "So even if we save your world and this invasion never happens, you'll still be in a position to summon us to stop these guys?"

"At the very least, I will remember what I need to do to create this projection of myself and bring you all together, although it would obviously help if you come to see me once matters have been resolved."

"And how are we going to do that?" Wanda asked.

"You will understand when the time comes," Strange said. "Good luck."

With those final words, the projection vanished once again, leaving the Guardians to exchange glances.

"OK," Paige looked at the returned searchers. "Does the time travel angle give us more of a deadline to deal with, or are we safe just sticking to our current plan?"

"We have a current plan?" Billy asked. "I thought we were still doing research…"

"We were always going to try and stop these guys before they went after their next world; that hasn't changed," Angel pointed out.

"Indeed," Vision said, indicating the scanner in his hand. "Our priority now is to determine the capabilities of our enemies and how we might bypass them."

"You have an idea?" Emma asked.

"I have some," Vision nodded. "But if we are going to do this, we must explore our available options."