"I have to go out today," said Phoebe, there was worry in her tone but it was lighter than it had been at first. After two weeks Piper still hadn't left the house, and by now, the others were starting to get accustomed to her vices.
"Are you sure you don't want to come with me?" she said. "I'm sure Brittany would love to see you. Tell you about her trip to Tahiti?"
"I'm fine," said Piper, giving Phoebe a small smile. She hated it, that she still had to be here, but she was gradually getting accustomed to the fact that until she thought she had a proper handle on the ability.
In the two weeks they'd learnt quite a lot, most of which Piper didn't exactly enjoy. They were apparently some sort of curse by their ancestor, a culmination of a bloodline of witches that gave rise to supposedly the most powerful forces of good to live: The Charmed One.
Put simply, this meant that they're entire lives had to be put aside so that they could protect people. Not altogether a bad thing, but the words being thrown around were, the most disturbing of which was destiny.
Piper hadn't discussed her loathing of this word to her sister, even with the dangers that would come, they seemed to accept the fact that they were destined to fight evil. Even if it meant that a job she'd worked quite hard for had been lost because of her explosive hands.
"Well," said Phoebe, not seeing Piper's line of thought. "I'd better get going. Love you," she said, giving Piper a hug before she left.
With Phoebe gone, Piper had the house to herself. She stood, touting the book along with her as she moved to fortified drawing room. It had taken a lot of work before Phoebe had gotten the spell down but it had ended in a room where sound didn't get out and the walls, door and windows were indestructible.
The room was bare, all the furniture having been moved or sold to put into the House Account for any time that it might be needed that they fix something through workmen. Instead there was a long table made out of wood, it too fortified, and on it were various old and useless objects ranging in size. The largest was a broke down fridge, while the smallest was a baseball.
As was becoming pattern, Piper took a breath and focused. She pushed her mind towards calling up the instances that made her angry and she pointed her hands in the direction of the fridge, giving them a flick while she gave a mental push; a small second and the fridge blew apart, pieces of rubble falling in every direction.
That was the easy part, her ability did very well with making large explosions. It was scaling them down while keeping the amount of power they expelled that was the problem.
She moved on to the smaller microwave, something they'd picked up in a junk pile. This time was a little different, she had to work towards forming an image of what she wanted in her mind first before thinking on the emotions; she imagined a ball, it would fly through the air and hit, exploding. She imagined the size of the ball and the explosion would take and then she flicked her hands.
The explosion went off, scattering the pieces of the microwave oven. She repeated, moving to an even smaller safe but this time it didn't have the result she wanted. The power behind the thing must have been wanting because the only sign was warped metal.
"Objects broken and scattered, pieces strewn and shattered, become one when this spell is done, repeat as long as there is need, until I say that I am freed."
As one, the pieces jumped and everything was fine again. She repeated this, moving over and over until she was forced to stop. She moved to the kitchen, making herself something eat before she returned, this time working with the baseball on her freezing ability. It was a little easier to work with, with only focusing on the moving parts and imagining all of them stopping.
Three hours and this grew boring. Piper took the moment to search through Phoebe's collection of videos until she found something she could watch, not that she watched much of it because after fifteen minutes she went to sleep.
When she got up again it was because of the doorbell chiming.
"Coming," she said when the bell rang again. She moved quickly to the door, calming her breathing because even though it was unlikely, it was still possible that it was a demon. They hadn't seen one since…
They hadn't seen one since their initial encounter but it was possible they might with being the Charmed Ones. Part of the whole destiny thing.
She looked through the peephole and let out a breath of relief as she saw Andy on the other side. She opened the door, putting on a smile she didn't really feel.
"Andy, how are you? What are you doing here? Prue is at work," she said in quick order.
"I know," he said. "Do you mind if I come in?"
"I hope this isn't official police business," she said as she stepped back, gesturing for Andy to come in.
"You know that makes me curious, right," he said, a chuckle in the edge of his voice. "In all honesty it is," he said and Piper frowned. "It's about the investigation," he continued. "How we haven't been able to make heads or tails of it."
"That's what you said two days ago," said Piper. "I don't see what would make you come here personally."
He frowned as he looked at her. "It's just that…we think something more might be going on here."
"More how," she asked, feeling worry starting to creep in. What would even happen if they were discovered to be witches?
"A week ago people started disappearing," he said. "Women in their early to mid-twenties."
"Like us," said Piper. "You think we were a target?"
"With the little that we know about this person or their motive, it safer that we don't rule out the option," he said. "It would do me at ease if I knew you and your sisters were being safe, locking your doors at night. Maybe adding extra security to the place?"
"Yeah," said Piper. "We've been thinking about that. Working around our expenses since Prue is the only of us working."
Piper felt a small amount of anger as she saw his expression warp into pity. No doubt everyone pitied her, because from their perspective she now could no longer leave the house because of the explosion. There was nothing wrong with being seen as weak but it was irritating that they couldn't see that she was doing this for all of them.
"Anyway, be safe," said Andy. "And rest assured we're working towards finding the person or people responsible for all this."
888
"So, I noticed something to day," said Phoebe while the three of them were in the sitting room enjoying their dinner. "I have to wonder how much this has been going on and how much I've missed because…"
"You're rambling," Piper said through a bite.
"Right, right," she said before she gulped down her glass of water and threw the thing against the wall.
"Phoebe," said Prue, shocked. There was no sound of shattering glass, instead the glass hung in the air, held by Prue's invisible hand. "You can't just go around throwing things."
"I can," said Phoebe. "But I was trying to make a point. You mind letting the thing drop now? Because this was going somewhere."
"Then tell us first," said Prue. "Sudden noises could…" Prue stopped, her eyes briefly moving towards Piper before she stopped herself.
"You don't have to talk around me," she said. "I know I'm volatile right now."
The atmosphere shifted and the pity directed at her was back. She took slow breaths to push back the irritation, bottling it to a point before she directed it and the glass still in the air. The thing shattered, earning a surprise from her sisters before Phoebe shot her a grin. The pieces fell to the ground, fortunately Phoebe had thrown the glass away from them, which meant the pieces hit no one.
"Word," said Phoebe and suddenly the glass was reformed.
"What?" Prue said.
"The first spell I made up," she said. "Maybe it was because I was unspecific or because there was an element of vagueness when I was going into it, but now every time something break around me, it fixes itself when I speak."
"That could prove to be troublesome," said Prue.
"Yeah," said Phoebe. "I know that, which is the reason I'll be working on a spell to counter it. The book will probably have something interesting to say about spell reversal. It's cool though."
"But it leaves us exposed to more warlocks," said Piper. "I was thinking we start thinking of spell to ward the house. More than just minor measure, but a spell using the Power of Three to make sure we aren't attacked at home."
"You afraid of something like that happening?" asked Prue.
"Yes. Andy was here today, apparently there's someone going around kidnapping people."
"What?" said Phoebe. "And you didn't think you should tell us this? We might be able to help with our powers."
"But that's police business," said Piper. "What are we could to do? Blow up the kidnappers? Move them? Or see their future?"
"No," said Phoebe. "But maybe I can look see who their next victim is going to be and then make an anonymous tip."
"That could work," said Prue. "But we have no—" She stopped because Phoebe had that look in her eyes, as though she was in a far off place before she abruptly returned, already rising to her feet.
"We have to go," she said. "Brittany's in danger."
888
Early evening was not a time to be travelling by car in the city, especially when what they had was only an image of a location without clear location. Forty five minutes they spent trying to find the buildings that worked off of Phoebe's memories.
"This is it, this is the place," said Phoebe as they stopped in front of a photo studio, the doors locked and darkness beyond. Prue didn't even think about it, giving her hand a flick that sent doors back only to be held at bay by the locks.
"Future's changed, he's moving faster," said Phoebe.
"Out of the way," said Piper and she focused on the anger. She flicked her hands and there was an explosion, breaking through the doors and sending glass and metal flying back.
The three rushed into the studio with Prue taking the lead.
"Which floor?" Prue asked before she stumbled, almost falling only to be caught by Phoebe and Piper. She took a breath and said, "Upstairs," she said, starting to run again. "It's a demon, I think, and it's making her older the more it stares at her."
"A demon? How did she even…" Piper said before she stopped as she was forced to run up a flight of stairs.
"You guys go ahead I'll catch up," said Prue before she stopped.
Piper and Phoebe continued forward and reached the first floor. Prue was already waiting for them beyond, "In here," she said, "and he's ready." And then she disappeared.
Question came unbidden but Piper pushed them back, her hands flicking outwards and an explosion ripping through the door that barred her path. "Dodge!" Phoebe shouted as the neared the door, diving into Piper; it was just in time because a beam of grin light shot out of the space, slamming into the wall and leaving a black scorch mark.
Piper quickly found her feet and focused on the anger; the ball detonated and the man was shot off his feet into the air before he landed in a clump. The man gave an errant wave of the hand and Piper felt something grip her, shoving her to the side and slamming her into a work table.
The man was finding his feet before he was pushed back again, his head flicking as he moved. She heard a grunt from Prue right after the thud of a body hitting a wall.
Thinking stationary thoughts, Prue flicked her hand and the man stopped froze from his positions.
"Phoebe, free Brittany," said Prue. "Piper blow him up."
Piper did, but instead of an explosion the man moved. "I don't—" She had time to say before beams of green light shot towards her. The force gripped her again, pushing her aside and causing the beam to miss her.
With a scream, Prue waved both her hands and two work stations tore through the air towards the man. He pushed one aside while jumping to the side to avoid from being hit.
"Come on," Phoebe muttered as she worked to free Stephanie who now looked ten years older. All at once everything was fixed, all the damage gone and the desks returned to where they'd first been.
The demon looked especially confused because a broken light he'd sent flying at Prue was now fixed.
Piper froze him again and the man stuck.
"I don't know how long that'll last," she said. "But I don't think I can using freezing and exploding on the same person or thing."
"How do we banish him? Phoebe can you look into the future," said Prue.
"Kind of busy," she said. "Can one of you guys help me out. Future sight really isn't that good at unravelling these ropes. Wait a minute I'm a witch: Ropes which this woman bind, unclasp and let her freedom find."
The ropes fell to the ground and it was just in time because the demon chose that moment to escape his freeze.
"Witches," he said, contempt in his voice. "How? When I have be so careful?"
"That's not important right now," said Prue, standing taller. "Just know we can't let you keep doing what you're doing: The Power of Three will set us free."
"The Power of Three will set us free," the others said and repeated. The demon took a step back, fear in his eyes. "The Power of Three will set us free."
"Impossible," he said. "The Charmed Ones? But you're legend."
"This isn't working," Phoebe muttered when she was close enough, but she still kept time, repeating the spell.
The demon's eyes flashed green but Piper was prepared. Her hands flicked out and the beam stopped before it could hit anything. This, however, had been a distraction and the demon took that opportunity to levitate desks towards a window while running in the direction; he jumped through, uncaring of the fact that it was a full storey to the ground.
"It didn't work," said Phoebe, and suddenly everything was fine again. "And this could get really handy for any future battles."
"We'll have to consult the Book of Shadows," said Prue. "And we'll need to figure out what we'll do with Brittany."
The woman had lost consciousness at some point and she was leaning quite heavily on Phoebe, the smaller girl struggling to bear her weight. Piper moved to help her, while her own mine struggled at how they would explain this when the Brittany eventually was awake.