-5-

Charmed Meetings

Across the country in San Francisco, California, luscious smells wafted into the noses of neighborhood residents who passed by and old, red mansion that stood magestically above a sloping lawn on an uphill street. This mansion was very similar to the Miller Mansion, the same look, the amount of stones, and used for the same purpose. The delicious aroma of a home-cooked meal floated around the rooms inside,which were ll neatly furnished and lividly decorated with flowers and pictures.

A small, dark-haired woman was standing at a polished black stove in a small, but well-stocked kitchen, slowly stirring the contents of a pot on the fire. Behind her, a small ding sounded. Carefully, she scraped the wooden spoon she was using against the edge of the pot and set it on a small plate before turning and walking to the double oven and bending to open the lower door. The smell of fresh rolls hit her like a wave and she smiled. Her sisters were going to love this breakfast without a doubt. Her long brown hair fell about her face loosely, but she tossed it behind her shoulders, tucking a lock of it behind her ear as she reached into the oven with a mitted hand and pulled out the tray of bread. Placing the tray on the counter, the woman returned to the stove, clicking off the fire under the pot and continuing to stir it until she deemed it satisfactory. Her eyes, a dark, chocolate brown which reflected knowlage and intensity, examined the pot's contents with approval.

Piper Halliwell neatly filled a small basket with the rolls and ladled stew into three pewter bowls,m careful not to spill. The second of the Charmed Ones, Piper had the powers of freezing time and molecular combustion. Though she was sometimes yearning to be a normal, power-free person, Piper dedicated all her strength to saving innocents and protecting her sisters.

Satisfied with her cooking, a hobby she loved and enjoyed (she had once been a professional chef and now owned her own club called P3), Piper made her way into the other room and leaned on the banister of a handsome staircase which lead to the upper floor and shouted, "Prue! Phoebe! Breakfast!" A murmur of understanding reached her ears and she smiled, knowing her sisters would be down eventually. She began to head back to the kitchen, but as she did, a glow of white caught her eye from the living room. Puzzled at this, she entered in there instead, just in time to see the lights of a whitelighters' orb shining in the center of the room. Expecting to see her husband, Leo, who was the Charmed Ones' whitelighter, standing with his arms outstretched to her, lovingly awaiting an embrace, she saw a young woman, younger that she was with bond hair appear. Almost as soon as the lights disappeared, the girl was sprawled unconscious on the floor, scarsly breathing.

Piper's mouth fell open in shock. The girl's hair was matted in blood. Her eyes were closed and her shoulder smoking. Her chest barely moved for breathing. She was bruised, bleeding, and battered as if she had been hit by a truck. Her eyes were closed and every part of her body was limp. Piper didn't think as she barely turned in the direction of the stairs and shouted, "Prue! Phoebe!" again, but urgently. She crossed the room at a run and knelt next to the fallen, injured girl. Hesitantly, Piper touched the girl's arm, but she made no move at all. Frightened without knowing why, Piper then pit a hand to the girl's lips, feeling for any breath that would reveal a sign of life. Luckily, there was sill faint breathing coming from the girl.

Piper had never seen anything quite like this. From the amount of blood, Piper was shocked that this girl was not dead. But how would she have orbed if she was dead? "Prue! Phoebe! Get down here!" She yelled again, starting to panic at the thought of this girl clinging to life in their living room.

"Ok, Piper! Keep your shirt on! I heard you the first t-" A woman with shoulder-length black hair passed by the room, clearly on her way to eat and involuntarily glanced into it on her way to the kitchen, saw her sister on the floor, drenched in the blood of an unconscious girl that was lying in Piper's arms. She backtracked slowly and took in the full scene, her hand raising to her mouth. "Oh, my God," She whispered. "Piper, who is that? How did she get here? How did she get like that?"

Prudence Halliwell, or Prue as she was known, the eldest of the Charmed Ones went over to Piper and knelt beside her, placing a hand on Piper's shoulder to steady herself as she looked at the blond girl. Prue was 24 years old with the light of wisdom and power glowing in her dark brown eyes. She, along with her other sisters, was beautiful with the high cheekbones of a model, though much of the time, her mouth was tight in concentration. Prue's telekinetic powers here incredibly strong, and she was also able to Astral Project (be in two places at once), which proved to be a valuable power. Often Piper and their youngest sister, Phoebe believed that Prue was the Power of One, the strongest of the three and the sole leader of their Power of Three. But Prue denied this. She was kind and modest and carried a sharp wit, often displaying it with and to her sisters. Not wanting them to end up like their mother and grandmother, who both died at the hands of demons, Prue used her powers to her full strength to protect her sisters.

Now, Prue's beautiful eyes stared at the unconscious girl with mixed horror and worry. "Piper, who is that?" She asked again, lightly shaking her sister's shoulder.

Piper had just opened her mouth to reply that she had no idea, when a quite and calm voice said behind them, "She's a Magicked One. The youngest, Lucy Miller." Phoebe Halliwell hurried into the room, carrying a basket with peroxide, gauze, neosporin, and a few damp towels hastily crammed inside it, as if they were thrown in the carrier in a hurry. Phoebe was a lovely young woman, 21 years old, with auburn hair that flowed to her shoulders in waves, and light brown eyes that showed her youthfulness, but also maturity. She was about as tall as Piper, but slightly thinner, though Piper was by no means heavy. Her body was perfectly curved and mature. She was usually smiling, eager to make others grin. Phoebe was able to levitate and also had premonitions of past and future events.

"Come on," Phoebe ordered gently. "Let's get her up on the sofa before we call Leo to heal her."

"Leo's with the Elders, though. He was called about fifteen minutes ago, remember?" Piper reminded her, while helping Prue heave Lucy up onto the couch. The girl felt as heavy as lead even if she was slim.

"Well then," grunted Prue, as she lifted the girl's legs up, "We can at least clean some of her cuts and try to wake her up. How did you know who she is, Pheebs?" She asked her youngest sister, curiosity getting the better of her.

Phoebe gently placed a wet washcloth on Lucy's forehead to speed her return to consciousness and explained. "I was getting ready for class in my room when I picked up my Lit book. I had a premonition of the Miller sisters being attacked by demons. Then I saw them all getting knocked out...or killed...I don't know which, and one orbing away before she was taken. Then, I saw her in here."

"Ok, but how did you know her name?" Piper asked horsely, her eyes wide after Phoebe's views were shared.

"I recognised Heather Miller, since she looks kinda like you, Piper," Phoebe answered, looking at her. "But Lucy is the only one in their family with blond hair, so that was a pretty good give-away."

"But why would she come here, of all the places in this world? Why to us?" Piper asked, sitting on a chair. "They have the Power of Four and they were still defeated. How could the Power of Three protect them any more?"

"Well, Piper, we are the most powerful witches in the world." Prue answered slowly. "No demon has ever beaten the Power of Three."

"Maybe she just orbed here by a whim, by coincidence, without thinking," Piper began, but Prue interrupted.

"Nothing happens by accident. You know that. Everything happens for a reason. Somehow, her destiny is linked with ours. Why else would she be here?" Prue reminded her sister, gently, seeing that she was almost in a panic.

Piper was still unsettled about the fact that another witch was so badly injured and orbing into their home, especially a witch as powerful as they were. "I still don't see why they were defeated. How can we help them if there is a powerful demon working for the Source?"

"Honey, I don't think this could be the Source's work. Even he can't break the Power of Three, so he wouldn't be able to beat the Power of Four." Prue answered, looking increasingly worried, nonetheless.

"Maybe there's a new boss in town," Phoebe offered, touching Lucy's shoulder, which she had been cleaning while her sisters talked. Prue and Piper leaned forward, curious. Scorched into the girl's shoulder, burned as black as a crow's feathers, was a Z, bold and dark, surrounded by many twisting lines and designs. Startled, the sisters looked up at each other in disbelief. All were thinking the same thing. A power greater than the Source?

"Leo!" Piper broke the silence by shouting the name into the air, her voice shaking.

"Uh, Piper, Leo's with the Elders. You just told is that he had something important to do." Prue told her.

"Yeah, I know that, Prue, but this is a little more important than the Elders right now!" Piper retorted, exasperated. "Leo!"

White lights flew around them and gathered, and Leo Wyatt, Piper's husband and the Charmed One's whitelighter orbed into the room, his light brown hair slightly tousled and his lovely eyes clouded with anxiety. He held out his strong arms, shrugging his shoulders. "What?" He asked, clearly irritated. "You know I was meeting the Elders." He turned to look at Prue, then spotted Lucy. He turned pale and grabbed the arm of a chair to steady his suddenly weak knees and muttered, "Jay. They've been attacked."

Piper frowned, not catching what her husband had said. "What?"

"Nothing," Leo answered, hastily.

"Leo," Piper began, but her husband cut in.

"Look, I don't know what's going on right now, Piper, but I'll tell you when I do. What happened?" He added, looking at Lucy.

"Can you heal her?" Prue asked him, grabbing his arm. Leo did not respond, but got to his knees beside the couch immediately and held is hands over their charges' heart. The warm glow of power radiated from Leo's hand and seeped into Lucy's veins, healing her bruises and cuts. The girls held their breaths as the healing power sank deeper into the girl's body, the seconds ticking by, each hoping that Lucy would wake up. Quite suddenly, Leo's golden power cracked, flashing red and gold, jolting him. He yelled in pain as the rays of light grew brighter and the power stronger, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not tear his hands away from Lucy, even though he knew that he was hurting her more. Realizing this, Piper jumped forward and physically pushed Leo away from the couch, breaking the connection.

As Leo lay on the floor, gasping in pain, so did Lucy start awake, her eyes snapping open. Piper was on her hands and knees next to Leo, her hands on his shoulders, supporting him as he clutched his chest, breathing heavily. Prue and Phoebe sat dumbstruck at what hat happened. Then, Prue spoke.

"You're alive. Good."

Lucy became aware of the presences in this strange room. Instinctively, she tried to move, but found that she couldn't. She looked up at the woman standing over her. "I can't move," she said, half to herself, half to the stranger.

The woman's eyebrows furrowed. "You can't?" She looked down at the man lying on the floor. "Leo, why couldn't you heal her?"

Leo gasped and struggled to sit up. "That's the thing. I did heal her, but something inside her stopped me from healing more. I can't heal her paralysis because it's demonic, though I'm pretty sure it will wear off. As for her shoulder, there's something...a chemical or spell in it that I've never encountered before."

It was then that Lucy understood who these people were. She looked at the woman sitting beside her and took in her dark hair and pensive eyes. "Prudence? Prudence Halliwell?"

Prue smiled and brushed a stray lock of hair out of Lucy's face. "Just call me Prue," She corrected kindly.

Lucy's eyes then flicked to the other girls. "So, you must be Phoebe." She said, looking at the youngest Charmed One with awe filling her eyes. "And, Piper." Piper also nodded and smiled, though it was a little forced. She was still concerned about Leo.

"Nice to see you alive," Piper said.

Lucy's head sank back into the cushions and she groaned slightly. "What happened to me? Why can't I move? And why am I here?"

Phoebe furrowed her forehead. "You don't remember anything that happened to you or your sisters?"

At the mentioning of her sisters, Lucy's insides jolted and her eyes grew wide. "Heather! Sam! Kate! Where are they? They're here, right? Are they ok? Are they-"

Prue jumped, startled. "They're not here. They didn't come with you."

"No! They've been attacked! We were all attacked! But they must be here! They must!"

Phoebe took Lucy's face in her hands and looked into the frightened girl's eyes, speaking firmly. "Lucy, look at me. Look at me! You need to calm down! We need you to tell us what happened. That's the only way we can help you. Your sisters are not here, but if you tell us everything, we will do all we can to save them. Just take a breath and calm down. You can't get hurt anymore."

The young woman obeyed and took some steadying breaths, straining her numb mind to remember the events of the day. "Well, I woke up kind of late this morning to voices downstairs. Sam was on the couch, lying down with Kate hugging her. Piper was sitting on the coffee table with our whitelighter, Jay, next to her. That's what I saw when I walked in. They were all talking about vanquishing a demon that had attacked them."

"They were attacked before?" Prue asked, sounding slightly surprised. "By whom?"

"I don't know," Lucy responded. "They never told me who they were looking for. But I went upstairs to get ready for class because I had an early meeting with my Lit professor."

"That would explain my premonition," Phoebe said, quietly, mostly to herself, but Lucy heard and gave Phoebe a quizzical look. "I saw you get attacked, though I didn't see who attacked. Then I saw you orb here."

"I don't even remember orbing," Lucy said truthfully, her blue eyes staring at the ceiling. "I remember seeing Kate and Sam blasted unconscious, then I saw Heather get hit by...well, I don't know. Blue electricity, I guess. She was already hurt, but all of them were taken by demons. I don't know where, but that's the last thing I remember."

"Did you see the person who attacked you?" Pure asked carefully.

"I think so," Lucy answered, hesitantly.

Prue stood up. "Would you remember if you saw them?"

Lucy thought about the yellow evil in the demonic woman's eyes, the blood read of her nails, the crimson of her robe. "It's hard to forget someone like that."

Desicivley, Prue said, "Ok, I'm going to get the Book of Shadows for Lucy to look through." She turned back to Lucy. "Don't worry. I know what it feels like to be paralyzed. I almost married a demon once because I couldn't escape." She smiled at Lucy's surprised expression, then said to her sisters, "Stay with Lucy and protect her. I'll be right back." She left the room, calling over her shoulder as she did, "I'm starving Piper! When's lunch?"

Piper smirked in the direction of her sister, then looked at Leo. "Are you ok, honey? We didn't know what happened."

Leo slowly climbed to his feet, a bit unsteadily, but he found his balance quickly. "I'm fine. Just a little shaky."

His wife gestured towards the kitchen. "If you want to eat something, there's soup."

But Leo was looking towards the ceiling. "They're calling again. I'm sorry. Something big is going on and they need me. They need all of us." He looked at Lucy and said, "Nice meeting you."

Piper nodded to her husband. "Take care of yourself."

"You too," Leo murmured, then leaned forward and kissed her. She returned it, passionately. He orbed out.

Lucy grinned weakly as she watched the farewell, trying to make a more pleasant atmosphere. "Just like my sister," She told Piper. "You know," She said, hastily, when Phoebe's eyebrows knitted together. "My sister, Kate, is married-"

"-To your whitelighter," Piper finished. "We know. It's hard not to hear the stories and rumors about the four Magicked Ones."

"Really?" Lucy asked, and Piper nodded. "Wow," she breathed. "That's pretty incredible. I didn't know that others knew about us, let alone others from across the country. I mean, we've heard about you, of course..."

"As have every demon in the universe," Phoebe muttered.

"...But you guys are so strong. You're stronger than we are and there are only three of you.

"I don't think that's true," Piper countered, sitting down opposite Lucy, who was beginning to feel her body tingling. She wasn't sure weather this was from the paralysis waring off or because of the pain in her shoulder. "You've dealt with many powerful demons before, some more powerful than one's we've encountered."

"You've gone up against the Source and defeated him, though. We haven't." Lucy argued.

"I think we'll all be seeing more of the new Source and this new power in the days to come," Phoebe said, glancing at Piper. "More than we'll ever want. There is more to being a good witch than defeating the Source and comparing demons that we've all faced," she chided Lucy and Piper gently. "You have your family, innocents to save, good things to do in your life. Worry about one thing as it comes."

"And now we have to worry about this new demon," Prue said, walking back into the room, holding the Charmed One's Book of Shadows in front of her, scanning the pages as she walked. "Ok," she said, sliding onto the couch next to her sister and holding the Book for in front of the paralyzed Miller. "If you see anything familiar, tell me. I'll flip the pages for you." Lucy nodded, feeling a bit of shame as she helplessly lay on the sofa. She concentrated, peering at each page long enough to see if the demon they fought was pictured.

After some long minutes, Lucy shook her head, wearily. "There's nothing. She's not in here." She looked up at her three sister witches, panic welling in her chest and fresh tears filling her eyes.

Prue leaned forward. "Well, we haven't encountered this demon before. I've never heard of someone or something so powerful that it can break the Power of Four. But I just thought that maybe Grams or Mom had faced her before, or even some distant ancestor. How has a new evil emerged in the world, and no one has heard about it, not even the Elders?"

Lucy slowly moved her arm. Although she was getting the feeling back in her arm and legs, she was feeling shaky, weak and ill, but could not tell why. "Jay left before we got attacked," She reminded them. "I hope-" She stopped suddenly, lurching forward and clutching her stomach, the movement suddenly flooding back into her muscles. She cried out in pain, shutting her eyes to block out the red fire that blazed across her vision.

Prue leaped to her feet. Their charge could suddenly move, but she was sweating feverishly, gasping in pain like she had been stabbed. Prue reached out a hand to grip Lucy's shoulder, but before her fingers touched, Lucy's hand snapped up and grabbed Prue's wrist, fingernails digging into flesh. As Prue cried out, a voice ommited from Lucy's throat, but it was a very different one than Lucy's. A harsh male voice spat out his threat to the three sisters, using Lucy's mouth and vocal chords to do so.

"Give up the Magicked One, witch! Her destiny is to die! She has the BrightGleam. If you do not obey, her sisters will die slowly and more painfully than you can possibly imagine. Your fate is the same if you do not obey the mighty Zoltof! The darkest corner of Hell awaits all of you if you do not relinquish the Magicked One to us! Beware, witch, and heed my warning!" Lucy's hand cruelly twisted Prue's arm, causing Prue to drop to her knees, gasping aloud at the pain. Then, just before her arm would break, Prue felt the fingers closed around her wrist release her. Automatically, Prue grabbed at her shoulder and looked up and saw Piper and Phoebe, seeing their startled faces as they stared, dumbstruck, at Lucy.

The pain wrenching at Lucy's heart suddenly subsided. Breathing heavily and painfully, Lucy slowly opened her eyes to see the three Charmed Ones staring at her, shock etched across their faces. Prue was on the ground, wincing in pain as Piper touched her arm. Phoebe was staring hard at Lucy, as if trying to break into her mind.

"Wha-what happened?" Lucy whispered, horsely, sitting up slowly. She could move now, though she still felt weaker than ever.

Phoebe stared. "Lucy?" She asked, tentatively.

"Yes..." Lucy began, then realized that something bad had happened, and knew. "Was I possessed?" She asked, dreading but knowing the answer.

"Piper looked over at Phoebe before replying." "Yes, but we don't know who possessed you. Do you remember what you said and did?"

Lucy shook her head slowly. "The last thing I remember is a pain in my stomach, as if I had been stabbed, then, fire across my vision. What did I say?"

"You...well, someone, warned us to give you up, that it was your destiny to die and that you possessed the "BrightGleam". They threatened to kill you and your sisters, and us if we did not give you to them," Prue said, still massaging her arm.

"My sisters! Did they say anything about them?" Lucy asked frantically, sitting up quickly and abruptly. "I need to find them! They could be hurt, or dying even." She broke off, her voice catching in her chest. Phoebe sat on the couch next to her charge, placing a hand slowly on her shoulder, as if afraid that Lucy was going to strike at her too.

"I was thinking. Since you're all related, we could use your blood to-" But suddenly, Phoebe gasped, her eyes shut tightly.

The vision of a dark, dirty cave filed her mind, walls damp and slimy. Sprawled on the floor, hands bound behind them, lay Heather, Kate, and Sam Miller, each unconscious, each with different wounds and injuries. Another flash showed the outline of a huge demon with burning eyes staring at the sisters, watching them as a smaller demon advanced on Kate with a rod upraised in his tattooed hand...

Her vision faded and Phoebe snapped back into reality, jerking her hand away form Lucy and finishing her sentence in a hushed voice. "-scry."

Lucy, having seen Kate get premonitions before many times, asked quickly, "What did you see? Did you see my sisters?"

Phoebe looked at Lucy though wide, brown eyes. "Yes. They're alive but only just, held captive by the same demons who burned that Z into your shoulder."

Lucy jumped awkwardly off the couch and stood up, shaking. Phoebe rose to steady her, but Lucy shook her head. "We have to find the,m. We need to vanquish the demon. They'll die. I need them." She whispered, tears glittering in her eyes.

Phoebe gently placed an arm around Lucy's shaking form and said, "We'll use your blood to scry, and if that doesn't work, we'll go to the Underworld and search it."

A sharp cough from Piper caused Phoebe and Lucy to look at her. "The Underworld?" Piper repeated, looking astonished at the very suggestion. "Are you crazy, Phoebe? No one has ever been to the Underworld before. No witch, at least. You expect us to go down there and come back alive?"

Her youngest sister looked pointedly at Lucy, who's cheeks were red and wet with tears of sorrow. "To save three sister witches. Three women who could be connected to us more than we could possibly imagine. They are Lucy's sisters. If we don't come back alive and they do, that's all that matters. If the situation were switched and me and Prue were somewhere down their, you would readily go, right?"

Shame burned in Piper's cheeks, but she kept her eyes hard as she said, "Alright, alright. I get the point. But let's scry first, then call Leo if we have to go down there. At least we have to tell him where we're going." Piper said, almost pleadingly.

"And Jay?" I need to see him!" Lucy chimed in.

Prue smiled. "Of course." She put a reassuring hand on Lucy's trembling arm. "Don't worry," she said, looking the young woman straight in the eye. "We'll save your sisters." Lucy nodded slowly, swallowing hard. An arm around her charge, Prue lead Lucy up he stairs, heading for the attic, where she would collect some of Lucy's blood to scry with.

Phoebe turned to Piper. Seeing her sister's apprehensive face, Phoebe walked forward and gripped her hand. "Piper," she began, but her older sister interrupted, shaking her head.

"I know what we have to do, Pheebs. It's just-" She looked deeply into her sister's liquid brown eyes and lowered her voice to a whisper. "How do we know we can save Lucy's sisters? How do we know that we will all live to see another day? To save another innocent? How do we know what we're up against?"

Phoebe took both of Piper's warm, callused hands in her own smooth ones and squeezed them. "How do we know we could be doing something that could benefit the entire magical community?" Still seeing Piper struggling to accept their responsibility, she added, "We could be ridding Good of an evil threat even bigger than the Source. If we die, we die for the rest of the universe's safety and peace. If we live, we might be able to live normal lives with no demonic threats."

Piper sighed, knowing that she couldn't avoid her destiny. She nodded silently, wrestling with the ominous feeling that something was going to go wrong. She knew that she couldn't over-ride her sister's decision. This was something they had to do. If they lived or died, they had to do it. "Stupid sibling democracy," She muttered, though purposefully loud enough for her sister to hear.

Phoebe grinned and lightly pushed Piper away from her. "You'd better believe it, sis!" She teased. "Come on. Let's go see if Prue found anything. Maybe Lucy's sisters are on this plane and not in the Underworld."

Together, the two Halliwell's climbed the staircase to the upstairs floor, which lead to the attic, pondering ways to rescue the three captured and hurt Magicked Ones without getting themselves killed by this power.