A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, I've been a bit writers blocked. Sigh.
Semper Fi Witchlighter: I know! Poor Rebecca is for sure! The sorceress is just a made-up character, though the inspiration is being pulled from the other sorceresses that have been on the show before. I'm glad you caught that! I was hoping someone would :)
lizardmomma: Rebecca is definitely right about needing more info. But, she's the only one thinking rationally. Yeah, you should know me by now... Lol. There is almost always something waiting around the corner to bite them in the ass... haha.
Okay, hope you guys enjoy!
...
"And this is your final decision?" The Angel of Destiny asked, looking around at the cousins.
Corrine nodded. Melinda sat beside her, with Katelyn sitting on the arm of the couch beside Melinda, and Rebecca standing behind them, silent and sulking.
"Yes," Corrine replied. "We agree to find and take out this sorceress. If we succeed, you agree to give us back the Charmed Ones and Leo, and we'll willingly give up our powers for that to happen."
The Angle of Destiny nodded, smiling at them. "Good! You will need your strongest vanquishing potions. Possibly even a spell to back it up. This sorceress has collected many a powers in the last few centuries and-."
"Whoa," Katelyn said, sitting up straight. "Centuries? She's been around for centuries?"
The Angel of Destiny had wandered a few feet away and was admiring a shelf full of framed photographs. He glanced up at them. "Hm? Oh, yes, of course. You assumed she was a young sorceress? Surely, if she was a young, low-level demon, we wouldn't have needed to go to such extreme measures."
"What does that mean?" Rebecca asked suspiciously. "What extreme measures?"
"I have a vague location for you," the Angel of Destiny continued, as if he hadn't heard Rebecca. "To get a more specific location, you will need to rely on your own magic."
"Okay," Melinda said. "So we magic the hell out of her. And then what? Does everything else just... happen automatically?"
"Once the sorceress is vanquished," the Angel of Destiny explained, "you will first need to relinquish your powers. Then, and only then, will the Charmed Ones be returned to you."
Corrine, Melinda, and Katelyn nodded.
"I will leave you to your task," the Angel of Destiny said with a nod. They blinked, and he was gone.
"Okay, so," Corrine said, standing. "Let's get moving. We need potions and we need spells. We don't want to go into this unprepared, especially if this sorceress is as powerful as he says she is."
"I can work on the potions," Melinda said, also standing. "I have a few ideas for some strong ones. I've been meaning to try some different ingredients out, anyway."
Katelyn stood, stretching. "I can help with spells. I'm in a rhyming kind of mood," she said, her voice border-line cheerful; she refused to get her hopes up, just in case, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the idea of seeing her mother again.
"I can try scrying for her," Corrine replied, nodding at her cousins. "I'm not sure how we'll find her without something of hers to focus the scrying, but I'll do my best." She turned to Rebecca. "What do you want to do?"
Rebecca crossed her arms. "Don't you guys feel, at all, like something is wrong with this? That we should second-guess any of it?"
"No," Melinda said firmly, "Not at all. I don't understand how you could even consider throwing away the chance to get our mothers back."
"And I don't understand how you can stand there and take everything that Angel said at face value," Rebecca snapped. "Seriously, no one has any doubts at all?"
"We don't have room to doubt," Katelyn said softly. "Bex... This might be our only chance."
Rebecca bit the inside of her cheek. "Fine. I'll help, but I still don't like this."
...
Roughly an hour later, Melinda had nearly twenty potions bottles, corked and ready to go, surrounding her. Katelyn was scribbling away on a piece of paper, crossing things out, writing some things down, then crossing out again; she had been working to come up with at least three or four different spells. That way, they would be prepared no matter what they faced.
Corrine sat before a map of San Francisco, the crystal in her hand. So far, her scrying efforts had been unsuccessful. She sighed in frustration, but continued trying.
For her part, Rebecca was pacing the attic. She had moved from one cousin to another: sometimes helping grab potions ingredients from the kitchen; sometimes trying to come up with a word that rhymed with 'demon' or 'vanquish'; and, sometimes, taking the crystal from Corrine so she could have a break.
But mostly, Rebecca paced. She did not have a good feeling about any of this, and no one would listen. She felt sick to her stomach, and the bad feeling only intensified the closer they got to finding and going after their target.
"Oh!" Corrine said a few minutes later. "Hey, I got something."
"Sorceress?" Melinda asked without looking up, corking another potion bottle.
"Has to be," Corrine replied. "I put everything I could into focusing on her. It's weird though..."
"What is?" Rebecca demanded, turning her full attention on to Corrine.
"Well..." Corrine frowned, then looked up at her cousins. "The sorceress is... Well, she's hauled up at a hotel."
Rebecca wrinkled her nose in confusion. "And that doesn't scream trap? Or trick?"
"Why," Melinda asked angrily, "would the Angel of Destiny trick us? That makes no sense!"
"And why is an evil sorceress at a hotel?" Rebecca huffed. "Look, I have a very bad feeling about this. And none of you will listen to me."
Melinda gripped an empty potion bottle so tightly, it cracked and shattered in her palm. Blood and glass dripped onto the table.
"Melinda!" Katelyn cried, running over to her.
"I'm so sick of your doubts," Melinda snapped. "And I'm sick of having the same argument with you over and over."
Corrine frowned at Melinda, but said nothing; she just observed her cousin silently.
"This may be our only shot," Melinda continued. "One shot. The only chance we have to get our mother's back. So would you stop being a whiny little brat and just help us?"
Rebecca's jaw dropped. "I'm a whiny little brat? I'm trying to be rational, to think logically. All you three have done is blindly follow the orders of an Angel of Destiny. We have no idea if he is who he says he is, or if he's telling us the truth. And seriously? You whine and whimper about Piper and Leo all the damn time. So don't tell me I'm a whiny brat."
Melinda gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw, the glass in her palm cutting deeper.
"Melinda..." Corrine said slowly. "Are you okay?"
"Of course not!" Melinda snarled. "We have a bitch for a cousin. How could I be okay with that?"
"Whoa," Rebecca said, stepping closer, eyes narrowing.
"Enough!" Corrine snapped. Everyone fell silent. "Okay, look... I think... Melinda, I think you're under a spell."
Melinda scowled at her. "Huh? How could I be? We haven't encountered any demons lately. Besides, I'm fine!"
"No, okay, you're not," Corrine replied, shaking her head. "You and Rebecca have never gotten along, but this... malice... you're feeling is not normal."
Melinda frowned. "I seriously doubt a spell is making me pissed off. Rebecca being an idiot is pissing me off."
"I think you're right," Katelyn said to Corrine, frowning at Melinda. "But what can we do about it? We can't go after a demon with her in this mental state... She's likely to get us killed."
"Hey!" Melinda protested.
Corrine licked her lips. "Okay... Reversal spell?"
Katelyn nodded, moving to Corrine's side. Rebecca sighed and joined them. They took hands.
"Uhm..." Corrine said, biting her lip as she tried to think of a spell off the top of her head.
"Powers of the witches rise,
Heed the hope within our minds.
Take away this malice spell,
Do not let it dwell."
A confused look crossed Melinda's face. A red glow surrounded her, then swooped out of her and became a glowing fireball above her head. She gasped before collapsing. She hit the attic floor and bumped her head. The ball of malice pulsed, then exploded, raining red light down on Melinda.
"Oh my god.." Rebecca said, eyes wide.
"I don't understand how or when that happened," Katelyn said, lip trembling.
"Melinda.." Corrine ran to her cousin's side, and gently nudged her. "Sweetie, wake up. You okay?"
Melinda groaned, her eyes fluttering open. She looked lost for a minute before her eyes opened wide. She glanced at Rebecca, cheeks flushed. "I'm so, so sorry..."
Rebecca smiled and nodded. "Forgiven."
After getting Melinda a glass of water and aspirin, and fixing her hand up, the cousins reconvened in the attic.
"This doesn't change anything," Melinda said after a sip of ice-cold water. She sighed in relief at the cool liquid. "I'm sorry that spell made me such a bitch, but I still believe going after the sorceress is the right thing to do."
"So do I," Corrine said, and Katelyn nodded.
"I'm still outnumbered?" Rebecca asked with a frustrated frown.
Katelyn nodded. "I'm sorry, Bex. But spell or not, Melinda is right: this might be our only chance... We can't pass it up."
"She's still at the hotel," Corrine said. She was standing over the map, crystal in hand. It had dropped, and the location hadn't changed. She glanced at her cousins. "If we're going to attack... It has to be now, before she moves."
Rebecca hung her head. "I'm not going to win this fight, am I?"
"Nope," Melinda replied, though her tone was much more gentle than before. She took Corrine's hand in her own. They had distributed the potions bottles, and each girl had roughly five or more bottles stuffed into various pockets. They each had a vanquishing spell tucked into their pockets, as well.
Katelyn held her hand out to Rebecca. "Come on... We can't do this without you."
Rebecca looked once at each cousin. They looked so hopeful. She sighed and nodded.
"Fine. But let the record show, I still protest this decision." Rebecca moved to Katelyn's side, and took her cousin's hand.
"Noted," Katelyn said with a grin.
Together, Melinda orbed Corrine and Rebecca orbed Katelyn.