Chapter 6 - Worst Fear... Come True

Paige cut off the baby talk when the doorbell rang, and looked towards the kitchen door, then back at her niece. She swung the girl into her arms, then carried her into the foyer, Parker beside her. Opening the door, she smiled blankly at the guy stood in front of her. He was short, slightly balding, wearing a grey pinstriped suit and a worried expression.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Do you live here?" He asked her anxiously.

"Uh... yeah..."

"I'm so sorry, I just crashed my car into the one parked outside - It was an accident, I swerved to avoid a cat -"

"My car?" Paige gasped. "Is it bad?" She stepped forward.

"No, no -" The man turned and started walking, and Paige followed him. She'd barely gone two steps before the man spun round and grinned at her. "The car's fine." He smirked.

"Bu - Wh -?" And suddenly, he changed. Right before her eyes, he grew taller, his hair darkened and thickened, his eyes turned from hazel to almost black, and his face thinned and became more defined.

"Alex." Paige gasped.

"Zander." He corrected, reaching out for Gracie. Paige spun away from him.

"Run, Parker, into the house." She gasped, and the boy obediently ran. "Leo! Piper! Leo!" Paige screamed, stepping after him. Unable to run properly because of the child she was holding, it didn't take much effort for him to knock her to the ground. She rolled the best she could to avoid landing on Gracie, and he took the chance, bending over her and closing his hand around his daughters arm... and shimmering out...

"No!" Paige tried to keep hold of her, but her arms closed around thin air. "No..."

----

Piper didn't have a chance to answer him, as his eyes widened. He grabbed her arm and orbed them, while she tried to get her thoughts straight. "Leo, what's -" They orbed just inside the manor door, Leo let go of her and ran out into the garden.

Hearing her name cried out, Piper turned towards her nephew. "Parker? What's wrong?" She asked as he ran towards her. He buried his face in her legs, and suddenly, cold dread spread over her.

"Where's Gracie?" She asked, and Parker shrugged. "Paige! Paige!" She let go of the boy and ran after Leo... and as soon as she saw him helping the sobbing mess of her sister to her feet, she new. "He took her..." She whispered.

"I'm so sorry." Paige sobbed. "I tried to get away... he shimmered her out..."

Piper didn't hear anything else, her ears were filled with a loud, terrified scream...And even when she realised she was the one screaming, she couldn't stop.

----

Zander shimmered back into the cave he'd spent the last month or so living in. It was the same cave he had taken Piper too all that time ago, and although he had abandoned it, in case the grandmother came after him, he felt it was somehow symbolic. So when he'd decided to abandon the plan to do the same to a different witch and go after Piper again, he'd returned to the place he'd once thought of as some kind of home.

He carried Gracie over to the large stone table in the centre of the cavern. It hadn't been there before; he'd traded for it just a week ago. It was a special table, and he'd spent a long time looking for it, and had to kill one of the demons he needed in order to get the power to trade for. But sacrifices had to be made.

He set the girl on top, right in the centre, then trailed his fingers over the markings around the side. He didn't know what they were, what they meant, or even what language they were, but he knew that they were the key to unbinding his daughter's powers.

Carkan finally shimmered in, and his strangely wide mouth circled into a smile when he saw the child.

"It worked." He nodded.

"What's Piper doing?" Zander smirked, wishing he could have seen her reaction - with any look the shock would kill her...

"Screaming." Carkan laughed. "Screaming the street down. And the other witch - her sister - is crying. The whitelighter doesn't have a clue. They won't be able to stop us."

"Good. Has he brought it yet?"

"Not yet. He went to get it just after you left."

"How much longer?" Zander said, glancing at Gracie. He'd heard a lot about mortal babies, and how they cried. The baby looked up at him, right into his dark eyes, and, as though she had read his mind, opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Make it stop!" Carkan yelled, while Zander stared helplessly.

"Shut up!" He commanded, but Gracie didn't flinch. Carkan raised his hand, formed a fireball...

"No!" Zander snapped. "No."

"Sorry, boss." Carkan died it out quickly. "Reaction..."

"Quiet, child." Zander snapped. Gracie screamed louder. "Silence!" He shouted.

Just when they thought she'd never stop, another demon shimmered in, and Gracie silenced, her face bearing a shocked impression.

"Quickly, quickly." Zander snapped, reaching out for the small glass bottle the demon held. As soon as he had it, Zander nodded at Carkan, who shot a fireball at the unsuspecting demon. Zander had learned a long time ago that the less demons involved, the less messy things got. Now there was just him and Carkan left.

Zander looked down at the burgundy liquid in the glass vial, smiling as the plan finally came together...

----

"These potions will take hours!" Piper fretted. "We can't wait that long! He could do anything to her!"

"Right, but we can't go anywhere until we have our powers. Or a vanquishing potion." Prue pointed out. Piper was pacing the floor in the attic while her sisters gathered ingredients together. She had never been in here before - this was where Grams' magic supplies were, and the Book of Shadows. Ridiculously, she had been apposed to getting their powers to protect Gracie... and now they were the only thing that could save her.

"Grams told me she'd made an unbinding potion for us, in case we ever needed it. She showed me it!"

"But we can't find it." Phoebe said. "We'll have to make our own."

"We've never made it before. What if it goes wrong and we end up with two heads or something?" Piper snapped, opening another of the little trinket boxes that cluttered the shelves. A few little velvet bags were inside, containing different coloured powers, but no little glass bottles.

"Maybe we should check her bedroom." Piper decided.

"But she kept the magic stuff in the attic." Paige protested, as Piper strode towards the door.

"Go with her." Prue said quickly. "We shouldn't be alone."

Piper paused as she stepped into her late grandmother's room, and Paige literally walked into her. It was the first time any of them had ventured inside, and Piper felt an overwhelming sense of loss as she looked at the things that littered the room, as though waiting for there owner to come back, as though Grams would walk through the door any second...

"Piper?" Paige murmured.

"Um, yeah." Piper stepped quickly forwards, fought the tears. She would come back in here later, after they got Gracie back, and grieve properly for her grandmother.

"Are you OK?" Paige asked quietly.

"Yeah, yes, I... I just, you know, was too worried about Gracie to mourn her..." Piper confessed.

"It's understandable. Come on, let's get looking."

As they moved around the room, intruding, Piper thought, on her Grams' things, Piper broke the awkward silence. "How's Parker?"

The moments after Gracie's kidnap had now become blurred. She remembered Prue and Phoebe arriving, Prue calling Andy and making him take Parker out, anywhere until it was safe, then unlocking the attic and trying to work out what to do...

"He's... OK, I guess. I don't think he understood it, really. Andy'll do his best to cheer him up. Spoil him a little."

"Right." Piper opened the large jewellery box on the shelf, admired the antiques that were inside. She opened one of the little drawers, expecting to find a few pairs of earrings, old rings maybe... but what she saw made her cry out.

"Found it!" She yelled, holding up the tiny vial. "I told you -"

"There's only one." Paige said. "We still have to make more, we still have to wait..."

----

"Ready?" Carkan asked, and Zander nodded, uncorked the vial. He stepped forward, and Gracie fixed him with a stare. She opened her mouth, no doubt to cry again, but before she could make a sound, Zander had emptied the liquid into her mouth. She couched, swallowed, then glowed a deep, rich red...

----

"Look, we can't just wait around her. You guys make the potions as fast as you can, and just join me when you're ready!"

"No!" Prue cried. "You can't go alone! Are you crazy?"

"No. I have to save her." Piper said simply. "I'll drink this, Leo can send me to her, and I can hold him off until you guys get there."

"No." Prue stated. "He'll kill you."

"He could kill her." Piper replied.

"He wont. You know he wont, you know he wants her alive." Phoebe countered.

"Well, he could turn her evil." Piper replied. "We won't know what to do then. I can't lose her."

"Look, I'll go with Piper." Leo said. "I can orb her out if she needs it."

Her sisters looked at each other, then finally Prue turned to Leo. "You make sure she's OK. Make sure both of them are."

Piper nodded, uncorked the vial and tossed the potion down her throat. It burned as it went down, then she felt strangely hot. And then... normal.

"OK, make it quick." She said, gesturing the scattered bowls and bags on the table.

"We will. And Piper... Be careful." Prue murmured.

"I will." Piper grabbed Leo's arm, and as her vision turned white she took a deep breath...