All at once Piper was met by a surge of images. In a series, running in fast-forward and still her mind could comprehend it all. The events of the last few days and the events of the future, herself in a state of panic and destroying things; she saw witch-craft, spells being cast and potions being named; and she saw the worst sight, a woman about to destroy the entire universe.
"Piper?" said Jeremy and instinct Piper hadn't known she had come to the fore. Her hands pointed forward and a ball of fire was envisioned in her mind; panic showed itself on Jeremy's face but the man was already moving, pushing himself to the side. The explosion went off and her power hit a section of wall.
Jeremy rolled and came to his feet, a grin appearing on his features. Piper noticed for the first time that she had found her feet too, her heart was beating faster and adrenaline was filling her system. She remembered that this man was dangerous, that it had taken the Power of Three to kill him before.
"You've manifested," he said, his grin spread wider and a chuckle just waiting to erupt. "I knew if I waited enough that I'd—" he stopped before he could finish the sentence.
"Piper," a new voice said and the instinct kicked in again. Piper whirled around and fired, the explosion detonated against another wall. Piper let out a breath of relief when Prue came out of the attack untouched. "Good," said Prue. "It happened to you too."
"Yes," said Piper. "But what is it?"
"—be able to—" The man froze again before he could finish. Why was it so much easier to freeze than to destroy, she had time to think. It was the same power, it shouldn't have been different, there shouldn't have been any delay just like there wasn't any delay in her freezing.
"I don't think we can discuss that," said Prue. "Not after what happened? Are you coming back to the house?"
"Yeah," said Piper. "But what will we do with him? Should I kill him again."
Prue hesitated before she shook her head. "Do you think you'd be able to bring him with you? He might help us in the long run."
Piper sighed. "I hate it, but I get it," she said. She took another breath and focused on just the man's head, imagining the ball of fire. She flicked her hands and Jeremy's said, "get your powers."
He tried to move but it didn't work. Confusion appeared on his features and from the strain he could see the man was fighting to move.
"I've frozen you," said Piper. "But of my abilities as a witch."
"You know," he said, sounding confused.
"Of course I know," she said. "Do you think Grams would just leave us in this world without equipping us with protection?"
More and more was starting to make sense when she looked at the greater whole. She'd thought before that Phoebe was perhaps projecting herself to her younger self, but as she felt out the new memories that were surfacing, she knew that it was Grams that she had these instincts. There was more to it, more she didn't know or understand, but right now she had to focus on this.
"Now you have to decide, do I kill you now or do you want a chance at becoming useful? Because the former would be really easy for me to do," she said, flicking her hand to make the television exploded.
She was more than a little surprised that no one had come calling yet.
"Fine," the man said. "Now let me go."
Piper snorted. "I'm not that stupid," she said. She flicked her hands but instead of unfreezing the man, she dulled down the effect of her powers, making it so he moved slower. "Try anything and I'll blow you up."
It took a little while to move in his slowed state and Piper was prudent enough to keep reapplying the effect. There was a problem though when he tried for Jeremy to enter the house because it barred him, at the stimuli Piper remember all the occasions Jeremy had declined visit her home.
As she thought on the problem, though, answers came to her.
"I, Piper Halliwell, grant passage to Jeremy Burns, so long as he abides by the rules of hospitality. Were he to renege on this, he'll be subject to the full might of the Halliwell line. Do you accept?"
"It's not like I have a choice," the man muttered under his breath. "I accept." He walked through without much problem.
"Make yourself at home," said Piper. "Within reason of course."
Jeremy strut into the sitting room, looking around with interest at everything. He tried to touch a vase filled with strange flowers and then hissed as though burned. He looked back at Piper before he smirked, Piper had the irrational urge to smite the man but she held it back.
"Prue! Phoebe! Any of you here?" she shouted but nothing happened.
There wasn't an answer and she felt worrying starting to bubble into her stomach before she pushed it back, focusing on the past and her memories. What the Elders and the Angel of Death were doing was deplorable, destroying entire timelines to keep to their image of the Grand Design.
The more she thought about it the more it made sense, how evil could be so dumb, not taking the obvious answers that she would have under the same circumstances. Because if they did, then that timeline would be destroyed, leaving only the timeline in which the decision hadn't been made. The Source would know this if he had other people who had visions of the future and would thus value his own survival in that specific timeline all while furthering his goals.
This still brought with it problems though—
"I'm curious," said Jeremy, breaking her line of thought. "Why you brought me here."
Piper sighed and flicked her hands towards the warlock. Jeremy reacted though, swiping a hand and moving a table towards Piper. The table stopped before it could hit and Jeremy beyond didn't.
He grinned. "Knew you'd do that," he said. "Which is the reason the house didn't attack me." Even with the confident there was a hint of relief in his voice.
Piper let out another sigh. "I'll tell you when my sister arrive," she said. "Because even I don't know yet. Now please shut up, I'm trying to think."
She ran back on the thoughts or at least tried to before she found herself at a blank. She had to test something first. "Leo!" she said and waited on baited breath, the whitelighter didn't appear.
"Who's Leo?" asked Jeremy. "Come now, Piper, don't tell me you've been seeing someone else."
"One more word from you and I'll curse your mouth shut," Piper said with a scowl.
"And here I was thinking you were a good witch," he said. Piper felt he fingers clench into fists, her mind running through the painful variations she could use on him: burning his clothes, breaking his bones, caught his heart to beat slower but she pushed it all back.
She tried thinking on this and saw that she was just redirecting how she felt, pushing towards anger instead of the fear she was feeling mostly for her sisters, but for the greater world, the greater play.
The had a very powerful enemy on their hands, the Angels of Destiny. They'd broken through a spell of protection and had enough raw power that they could destroy entire timelines, but Piper found herself confused by something, why had the Angels of Destiny been trying to stop them in the first place?
If they knew the future, then wasn't it possible that they already knew that a betrayal had been planned by their future selves? Why weren't they here stopping them? Unless there were some rules on the ability? Unless there was an even broader scope that they didn't know about.
"Jeremy," said Piper walking into a drawing room. The man was there, running a hand just above books that were on display, some were new, magical. "How much do you know about time magic?"
"A little," he said with a shrug. "But before that we need to broker a deal. I don't want to die at the end of all this? How about you don't kill me and I'll give you all the information you want."
"No deal," said Piper. "You were going to kill me. That makes me think you were planning the same with a myriad of other witches. We can't have that. It would go against the entirety of the good witches shtick that I have to keep up."
"You really going to deny me that fun?" said Jeremy pouting a little. He came close to Piper, putting on the same eyes that had made her fall for him in the first place. Against her better judgement she felt a mixture of different emotions, the happy coming to the fore and she felt emotion filling her up.
She took the emotions and twisted them, turning them into a dulled sort of anger. She felt her hands moving but she stopped the motion, instead focusing the ball, it detonated, smacking Jeremy off his feet.
He was grinning as he came to his feet. "You're different," he said, brushing himself off. "I think I like this new Piper. I find her hot."
Piper hated that she was riled up so easily. But her emotions were closer to the surface. Memories came easier and they disturbed the emotions surrounding them. Perhaps it was a part of the spell.
"Time magic, now," said Piper. The glass next to the man shattering, but the pieces of glass didn't touch him.
"Right, right," he said. "It's not something that can be pulled off easily by any witch, warlock or magical being. Even the major forces it drains them heavily. You and your sisters, the whole legend surrounding you three, I think you might be able to pull it off but you'd earn a lot of ire from the people who keep track of that sort of thing."
"They being?" asked Piper.
"Seers from various sides of good and evil," he answered. "Even some neutrals. Why are you asking all this, anyway? Scared they'll come after you after they find out what you did?"
"I didn't travel back in time," she said, which was technically true if she answered what he expected and not what had actually happened. In essence they were the same thing.
"Funnily, I believe that," he said. "Anyway, you've got me interested in whatever it is you and your sisters are planning. How about…I stick around for a while, learn the trade and maybe I'll get my fill of power."
"I'm curious about something," said Piper as she thought over the deal. It would help, sure, but she didn't really trust the man much, even though a part of her wanted to trust him. "Why did you decide to become a warlock in the first place?"
"I had a week power," he said with shrug. "Or a power I couldn't really leverage." He held up his hands and his nails darkened, sharpening into points before stretching outwards. "Hard as nails," he said with a goofy grin.
"But not really much because I can't fight. Heard that if killed someone with the right instrument I would get their powers. Then I see this old man lament about the curse of his power and I was angry. I killed him, got his power, got the rush of it and I've been hooked ever since."
"What about the spells?" Piper asked. "Just make up a stupid rhyme and you can do an effect."
"For you maybe," he said. He let out breath in exasperation. "But the rest of us it isn't like that. It takes a lot of power even to perform a basic spell of levitation, not mentioning the fact that I don't come from a family of witches in the first place. Can't do potions or spells that require exotic ingredients. This was the easier way out."
"Right," said Piper. "Still don't get it beyond that. There's a high risk, high reward factor in all of this, sure. But failure means the wrong witch and almost certain death."
Jeremy shrugged. "I've been lucky so far. Anyway, what are you and your sisters—" A small vial flew through the air, slamming into Jeremy, there was a small flash of blue light before it disappeared, another bottle and when it hit, the man was frozen.
Piper turned in the direction to find Prue and Piper.
"Attic, now," said Prue. "That should last for an hour."
Piper nodded and followed her sisters up the stairs into the attic. They closed the door and she saw a golden shimmer passing through the entire room before it faded. More protections, she had to wonder if there was any chance of them holding up if they were attacked by another Angel of Destiny.
"All of us got our memories?" said Prue. Phoebe and Piper nodded. "Good. Phoebe, that was genius what you did, but it might be for nought because they might be after us right now."
"How do we even prepare for them?" asked Phoebe.
"It might help if we knew the exact specifications of their powers," said Piper. "Or, if not that, we need to get more powerful."
"Does the amount of power transfer over when our memories move backward in time?" asked Prue. "Because it will be useless if it isn't like that and we spend a lot of our time training."
"But it might be the best way to go," said Phoebe. "Right now we really don't have much to do with them, but if we had enough clout it might be possible."
"You have a plan?" asked Prue.
"I might," she said. "But I'll have to search the future."
"Do it," said Prue. "In the meantime, we need to contact Grams. Get an image of what she was doing with the images you sent to her."
"I'll get everything prepared," said Piper.