In the dark abyss of The Underworld, three upper-level, demon brothers loomed, suspended in their Iscus: a triangulated, reflective, energy field.
"Now is our time to rise and strike; there is no better time, brothers," one demon spoke out.
"We cannot strike until the 'Charmed Ones' have left, Pithius," a second demon warned.
"What? You are still fearful of the sisters, Procell?" Pithius questioned with disbelief. "Their powers have been transferred, the new witches are weak, we must strike now!" he insisted.
"We must wait until they leave; it has been agreed. If we break the vow, we will be banished… imprisoned for eternity," Procell argued.
"Send one of the others before us," Pruflas, the third demon interjected. "We must be cautious. There is no room for foolish mistakes. We must never be seen to fail if we are to become the ultimate power. Send a follower to report back on the new witches," he repeated.
"Let it be done," Pithius concluded.
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Phillipa stormed towards the front door of the Halliwell Manor, closely followed by Gabe, with Payton in tow.
Paige was the first to react, orbing ahead of Phillipa and barring her exit from the Manor.
The fact that Phillipa had miraculously found herself in some strangers' house, and that she'd witnesses a candle turn into a flower, had all been pushed to the back of her head and dismissed as some trick of the mind until then. However, even the ever cynical Phillipa was rendered speechlessness when Paige appeared before her in a flash of white light.
"Looks like we'll still have our powers for a while then," Paige pointed out.
"You'll keep them for today to help the girls, then when the transference is complete, their powers will grow in strength," Leo explained.
"What's happening?" Phillipa cut in suddenly, beginning to cough and choke.
"Are you okay?" Paige asked with concern, placing a hand on her arm.
"What is that?" Phillipa replied, cringing and placing a hand over her mouth.
"What's what?" Gabe asked. For some reason he couldn't explain, he suddenly felt extremely edgy. Maybe it was the years he'd spent working as a body guard that were making him overly concerned for a woman who had shown him nothing but hostility so far.
She looked up at him with watering eyes. "You mean you can't smell that awful smell? God, I can even taste it!"
Piper and Phoebe turned to each other, and Piper whispered something to Phoebe.
"What does it smell like?" Leo asked.
"Burning, chemicals, sulphur, it's horrendous!" Phillipa gagged.
Then they appeared: three lower-level, shabby looking demons who didn't appear to impress 'The Charmed Ones', but who scared the living daylights out of Phillipa, Phoenix and Payton with their yellow eyes and echoing voices.
"Take them!" one demon roared, producing and energy ball and hurling it immediately at Phillipa. Gabe acted on impulse, launching himself at Phillipa and throwing his arms around her shoulders. Immediately a watery barrier formed around them. She backed away from him in shock and bewilderment.
Piper tutted and held up one hand, freezing the demons. "I thought our demon vanquishing days were over. Still, you'd have thought they could do better than this lot," she said, crossing her arms and assessing the frozen demons.
Now that the 'demons', as Piper had referred to them, were seemingly powerless, Phillipa squirmed awkwardly against the onslaught of Gabe and tried to untangle herself from his arms.
"Do you mind?" she said, finally prising his hands off her, "that's the second time you've manhandled me today!"
He huffed, looking her up and down. "You should be thanking me lady; I just saved your ass!" He'd never met a woman who was so uptight, with her slick business suit, straight, shiny, scraped back hair and reading glasses. God, she probably wouldn't look half bad if she didn't dress like a damn school teacher! How ironic, she was supposed to have profoundly developed senses; sensual she was not!
"Right, come on," Paige said, clapping her hands and jumping into action to distract from the tension between Gabe and Phillipa, "this will be good practise for you three. So, what you gonna do?" She looked from Phoenix, to Payton and back to Phillipa, who was still scowling at Gabe. "Gotta be quicker than that," she warned, "or you'll all be demon toast!"
Surprisingly, Gabe was the first one of them to speak. "What did I tell you sis?" he said, moving towards one of the demons, "Go for the pressure points. Throat," he said, jabbing two fingers at the demon's throat, "temple, and eyes," he added, making a mock attack.
Piper sighed. "You may be trained to defend yourself against criminals but these are demons we're talking about here. They don't have pressure points, just fire and brimstone."
Phoenix shook her head then as she came out of shock and her mind began to focus. "But those fire balls can't hurt me, right?" she spoke up. "It's gonna kill them if they throw them at me."
"Vanquish," Phoebe corrected, "but yes, that's going to help a lot."
"Okay, okay," Piper cut in, "but you don't have time to stand around chatting; do something before these guys unfreeze."
Phoenix began to sprint across the room, towards Phillipa and the energy ball, dodging chairs and the coffee table along the way.
"Wait," Piper said, halting Phoenix, "way too slow. Phillipa would be demon fodder by now."
Phoenix cringed, feeling like she'd failed miserably.
"Think," Phoebe cut in. "You have to be inventive with your powers. Use them in any and every way you can."
"Okay, Leo said I can teleport," Phoenix pointed out. "So how do I do that… and quickly?" she asked.
"You've got to use your powers," Phoebe repeated.
Phoenix closed her eyes and tensed her whole body, trying to make something happen.
"It doesn't quite work like that," Paige said, trying not to laugh. "You have to relax more than anything, and you must believe you can do it, believe in your powers."
Phoenix took in a deep breath and relaxed her body this time, however, still nothing happened.
She opened one eye. "Am I doing this right?"
"You don't honestly believe that you're going to teleport do you?" Phillipa laughed.
"Sssh," Phoebe cut in, holding a hand up to Phillipa, whilst encouraging Phoenix. "Bring together all your emotions," she said softly, taking hold of Phoenix's arms as if to give her strength. "The fear you felt today, the confusion, the excitement. Focus on them; let them take over your body," she stressed.
As Phoebe spoke, Phoenix seemed to fall into some kind of trance, whilst focusing her newly forming powers.
Then it happened again, as it had done in the café: a small flame leapt from her shiny, auburn hair. Payton's and Phillipa's faces showed signs of panic, but Phoebe continued to reassure Phoenix, and the others.
"Don't resist it; channel that power," she urged. "It won't hurt you. It can only make you stronger."
The fire really began to grow then, leaping from Phoenix's hands, legs, shoulders and arms, until her whole body was aflame. Phillipa, Payton and Gabe watched in horror, and even the 'Charmed Ones' were slightly anxious about watching Phoenix burst into violent flames.
Then, she suddenly opened her eyes and began to scream in panic. There was a great roaring and whooshing sound which filled the room as the fire raged on.
"It's going to be okay!" Phoebe shouted, glancing nervously at Piper as if she wasn't completely certain that she believed in her own words.
Then, without warning, Phoenix seemed to disappear within the flames, before they lost their strength and sunk into the floor, leaving only a sprinkling of ash and dust. The room fell utterly silent, with everyone staring at the pile of dust in shock.
"Ooops," Phoebe said eventually.
"Ooops!" Phillipa repeated in disbelief, "is that all you can say? I mean, okay, I don't really know that girl but she's just been burnt alive in front of us!"
Then, to make matters worse, the three demons began to unfreeze.
Piper sighed and froze them again.
"Wait, look," Paige said, pointing to the pile of ash and dust, which was beginning to glow bright orange. Gradually a flame leapt up again from the pile, forming a round ball. The ball morphed, changing shape and growing until it was possible to make out a long thin body and a small pointed head. Seconds later, with a bright flash, two magnificent wings shot out of the body and the fiery shape of a bird swooped above them. It circled twice, before finally settling between Phillipa and the demon, at which point, the wings slowly lowered and the flames died, revealing an unharmed and extremely pleased looking Phoenix.
Piper reacted quickly, waving her hand to unfreeze the demon and, as the energy ball hit Phoenix, the demon began to squirm and cry out in agony, finally disappearing from the room completely.
"Wow, impressive," Paige said, patting Phoenix on the back. "Kinda makes orbing look a bit boring in comparison."
Phoenix looked extremely pleased with herself. "Thanks."
Piper looked deep in thought. "Do you think you could do that quicker?" she asked Phoenix, "Quite a lot quicker actually."
"Sure," she replied, now full of confidence in her new powers. "Just need to get the ignition going quicker and then practise my take off," she chuckled, imitating a bird in flight with her hand, "then, whoosh, straight into landing, ready to rebuff the fire balls," she finished with a flourish.
"Energy balls," Phoebe corrected.
"Oh yeah, energy balls," she amended.
Even Piper had to nod in approval of Phoenix at that point. She was impressive, learnt quickly and certainly showed promise, probably because of her enthusiasm. She wasn't so certain about the other two though, particularly Phillipa; she seemed so cynical.
"Right, Payton, what shall we do about him?" Piper said, strolling up to one of the two remaining demons.
Payton looked a little startled and uncomfortable with being thrown into the limelight.
"Hey, you have limitless options," Phoebe reassured her, "remember, you can turn any object into anything you want."
"What's going to kill them?" she asked.
"Energy balls," Piper answered, "And potions, but we're going to have to leave potions till tomorrow; Wyatt and Chris have been with Dad all day now," she pointed out, glancing at Leo.
"They'll be okay for a while longer, until these two have been dealt with anyway," Leo said, gesturing towards the remaining demons.
Payton had been wracking her brains to come up with something to impress everyone as much as Phoenix had, but she finally had to settle on the only vaguely good idea she could think of. Walking up to the coffee table, she grabbed one of the oranges from a crystal bowl, which was placed in the centre, and held it firmly in her hand whilst closing her eyes. To her amazement, it worked, and she dropped the object when she felt her hand begin to heat up. Opening her eyes, she saw it hovering in mid air in front of her. She'd managed to transform an orange into an energy ball!
"Good," Leo encouraged.
"But there's one slight problem with that," Paige cut in. "You can't move the energy ball towards the demon."
"Yeah," Phoebe interjected, "in fact, the demon is probably more likely to use your own energy ball against you," she pointed out.
Payton's face fell and she grabbed the energy ball, turning it back into an orange and dropping it into the bowl again.
"What now?" she asked, feeling slightly downhearted.
"I've got an idea," Phoebe smiled, "I'll be right back," she said, disappearing from the room. She came back minutes later with a broom in hand. Payton wondered what on earth Phoebe had in mind. Phoebe approached Payton, picked up the orange again, and handed it to her, together with the broom. "Here, now you have a demon to move the energy ball for you," she grinned.
"You think it will work like that?" Paige asked.
"Only one way to find out," Phoebe replied, "Now focus on him," she said to Payton, turning her to face the demon.
Payton stared at the demon, taking in as many details as she could, before closing her eyes again and concentrating on the orange and broom in her hands. Seconds later, she could feel the objects changing. Everyone cheered and she opened her eyes once more in amazement to see the demon she had conjured from a broom holding the energy ball which had once been an orange.
"Okay Piper," Phoebe called out to her.
Piper unfroze the second demon, and the conjured demon proceeded to hurl the energy ball at him. His last words were angry curses and then he was vanquished.
Everyone applauded and Payton felt relieved to have lived up to everyone's expectations. She reached out to the conjured demon and touched him, turning him back into a broom.
"Don't want any more of these than necessary," she said, with a nervous laugh.
"Great," Piper enthused. "So, now you all just need to practise," she said, glancing at her watch and wondering how much candy Victor had fed Wyatt and Chris by that time.
"Err, hold on a second," Phillipa spoke up, "What about him?" She pointed to the last demon. "And what if more of them come back?" she asked, "I think you're better at this than us. So… I'll be leaving you to it," she concluded, heading for the door again.
Paige blocked her way once more. "No can do," she said, "been hearing jingles in my head all afternoon now. Am needed elsewhere."
"But…" Phillipa began to protest but was interrupted by Phoebe.
"Do we vanquish him or send him back?" she asked.
"If we vanquish them all, they will think they are stronger than they are and come back with twice the number of reinforcements," Paige commented.
"Maybe, or it might put them off for a while, which would give us more time," Piper pointed out.
Phoebe gave it some thought. "Or… or, if we sent him back and let him know that we still have our powers, we could almost guarantee that will hold them off for a while."
"That's true," Paige agreed, " and it's not as if he's seen anything he can report back on; he's been frozen this whole time," she added.
"Okay." Piper made a quick decision, "We let him go, and then we've got to go home," she said, unfreezing only the demon's head with a small flick of her finger. The demon growled with anger. "Listen to me dirt bag," Piper said, moving her face up to his threateningly. "We're going to let you go so you can give your boss a message from us: the 'Charmed Ones' still have their powers for now, and now there are three more witches in the Manor, so if you thought the power of three was bad, just imagine what the power of six could do!" And with that she unfroze the rest of him. He glared angrily at her but shimmered immediately afterwards.