Chapter 20: Little Box of Horrors Part 1

Nina ran into an alley, breathing heavily from the exertion, carrying a small black box in her hand. She glanced quickly behind her before continuing into the alleyway. As she walked into the alley she let out a sigh and clutched the box to her chest.

Suddenly from out of nowhere she is kicked in the face. Her necklace fell to the ground as she went tumbling. The small black box wretched free from her grip, slid to a stop a distance away from her.

Nina groaned as she got up just as the demon Katya landed on her feet behind her.

"It's Nina, right?" Katya said as Nina turned to look at her.

"You'll never get it," Nina said. "I won't let you."

Katya smiled. "I didn't ask for your permission." She chuckled as she advanced slowly on Nina, who took a step backward. "It's only a matter of time, you know, before I get the box."

"Over my dead body," Nina said.

"That's the thing with you Guardians. You're always dying for that damn box."

"Not always," Nina said as her hands glowed and she blasted Katya telekinetically.

Katya flies backward, but managed to catch herself just before she hit a wire fence. She then landed gently on her feet as she took a dagger out from its holder in her pants. "Oh, come on, you can do better than that." She then took out a second dagger that had been hidden behind her back. She turned and threw the dagger at Nina who dodged backward, catching the dagger mid-flight.

Nina glared at Katya who smirked back at her.

Katya swung the dagger in a wide arc as she stepped toward Nina, who moved and blocked Katya.

Nina pulled the dagger back and kicked Katya in the face. She jabbed the dagger at Katya who moved aside.

Katya grabbed Nina's hand and jabbed her dagger at Nina. They grab each other and suddenly Nina stepped backward from Katya just as the black box glowed and the disappeared.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Paige squinted her eyes tightly as she held her fingers to her ears trying to block out the sound of a irritating high-pitched whine. "Phoebe?" she called out.

"Coming!" Phoebe called back as she walked into the living room carrying a cup. She headed over to Paige. "Coming. I used castor root this time. It should dull all the senses."

"I don't care," Paige said with a sigh. "Just give it to me."

Phoebe sat down and handed Paige the cup. She watched expectantly as her sister drank from it.

"Thank you," Paige said as she noticed Phoebe smiling at her. "Do you mind?"

"Do I mind what?" Phoebe asked.

"Looking so psychotically perky," Paige told her, "while I'm so miserable?" She grimaced at the incessant whine and tried to ignore Phoebe.

"You know, maybe it's psychosomatic," Phoebe said. "I mean, the inner ear has to do with balance, so maybe you're feeling imbalance because the whole magic school thing."

Paige let out a sigh. "Remember Leo took over, I haven't even been back for a few weeks now."

They both turned when they noticed Wyatt orb into the room in front of them. They noticed that Wyatt was dressed in a bath robe looking rather guilty.

"Hey, big boy," Phoebe said. "I thought it was bath time."

"Uh, it is," Leo said as he walked into the room and knelt next to his son. "Uh, hey, buddy. That was, uh, pretty funny, but I don't think mommy's going to think so."

"What's going on?" Phoebe wondered.

"Uh, I think the terrible twos have begun," Leo said with a sigh.

"Oh, well, magical boys will be magical boys," Phoebe said.

"Yeah, well, try explaining that to his magical mama," Leo said as he turned back to Wyatt. "Listen, I think you better orb back upstairs before mommy turns you into a toad."

Wyatt orbed out of the room.

Paige groaned at the incessant whinning which now included pounding her head. "Ow!"

Leo turned and looked at Phoebe and Paige. "What's the matter?"

"She has a ringing in her ears," Phoebe explained.

"No. It's more like a jackhammer," Paige said.

"Really? Is it kind of like a dentist's drill that kind of goes in and out?" Leo asked.

Paige nodded. "Yeah."

"Why, you know what it is?" Phoebe asked.

"Well, it could be another of your whitelighter powers coming on," Leo said as he knelt down in front of them. "You know, you could be hearing the call from the Elders. Before I learned to control my powers, it used to drive me nuts."

"No. That's unacceptable," Paige said as she rubbed her temples. "Ow."

"Okay. Well, you're half-Whitelighter," Leo said. "You can't deny that."

Paige sighed. "Yes, I can. I want nothing more to do with the Elders, okay? Not after them trying to force me and Buffy together."

Leo sighed. "I understand that, but you do have to admit that you do love my daughter so their meddling was good. Regardless if it is what I think it is, you're not going to have a choice. The only way to find out is to actually talk to an Elder."

Paige rolled her eyes.

"Well, you can't bring one over here," Phoebe said. "Piper will freak out."

"All right, well, then maybe you should meet at Magic School," Leo said as Paige looked at him with exasperation. "Look, do you want it to stop or don't you? Come on. I'll go with you." He held out his hand as Paige grabbed it and sighed. She then orbed them both out.

Phoebe grabbed the cup off the table as she stood up. She looked up just in time to see a flurry of something happening in front of her.

Just then Nina appeared in front of her.

"Who are you?" Phoebe asked.

"Please, you have to help me find it before it's too late," Nina said.

"Find what?"

"Pandora's box!"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Wyatt sat on the floor of the attic playing with his toys while Piper looked through the Book of Shadows. "Well, I guess since Excalibur is real, I don't know why it'd be a surprise that Pandora's Box isn't as well," she said just as Phoebe walked through the door and handed a cup to Nina.

"Oh, thank you," Nina said as she took a sip.

"How did you know to come to us?" Piper wondered.

"You're The Charmed Ones," Nina said as she dabbed at a bruise on her chin with a tissue. "Everyone in the magical community knows about you."

Piper sighed. "Yeah. That's becoming a problem," she said as the Book of Shadows orbed out from under her hands and onto Wyatt's lap. "Hey!" She turned to face her son and knelt down next to him. "Um, mister? Excuse me. Listen, what did I tell you about the orbing? Okay? Only when I say so." She picked up the Book of Shadows and placed it back on the bookstand. "Thank you very much."

"Piper, you can't deny who he is, through the good, the bad, and the annoying," Phoebe said.

"Ah, I see you've been talking to Leo, haven't you?" Piper asked.

"Look, just because you guys have completely different parenting styles doesn't mean you can take it out on me," Phoebe said. "I'm just the sister."

"And whose side are you on, exactly?" Piper asked as Phoebe chuckled.

"Back to the box?" Nina said as she moved beside Piper.

Piper nodded. "Right. Okay. Let me guess. A demon took it."

"No," Nina said. "But we better find the next Guardian before one does."

"Guardian?" Phoebe wondered.

"Like you, we're chosen beings, part of a magical lineage, one in which every generation a girl is born …" Nina said as Piper and Phoebe looked at each other. "What?"

"One girl in every generation," Phoebe said as Nina nodded. "You don't think?"

"I don't know," Piper said with a sigh. "Buffy's destiny is just beginning. I'm not sure we can thrust another upon her. Especially when she already had a rough go of it when she told her step-father about fighting vampires."

Phoebe sighed and nodded in understanding. Buffy, Dawn and Joyce had all told them what had happened after Buffy had been called and before Paige had been assigned as their Whitelighter.

"Who are you talking about?" Nina asked.

"My step-daughter," Piper said with a sigh. "She's a Slayer, one girl in all the world type deal."

"It could very well be her," Nina said. "Who better to protect the box than someone trained to fight evil? But still if it is her, she has not been instructed about the dangers and powers of the box."

"So, what does Katya want with the box?" Phoebe wondered.

"She wants to open it and release the world's ills: Sorrow, famine, plagues, all the evil inside."

"So, what's to keep the new Guardian from accidentally doing the same, especially if Buffy is the new guardian and she doesn't know what's in the box?" Piper asked.

"Nothing," Nina said.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy and Willow talk on the phone. "Seriously, Buffy, it's all good. Stop stressing about Paige," Willow said.

"I know, but how can I not?" Buffy said with a sigh.

"Because she loves you," Willow replied. "You know she does. And you love her. So what if these Elders have been meddling?"

"I guess you right," Buffy replied.

"Mm-hmm," Willow said. "As always."

Buffy laughed at her friend. Out of a corner of her eye she spots a box she had not seen before. "Willow, let me get back to you." she said before hanging up. She looked to the box as she began to hear whispering coming from it.

She got off her bed and walked over to it and looked at it. She touched the lid cautiously and picked it up, opening the lid just a crack.

An awful screeching starts up as some black dust escaped from the box. She quickly shut the lid and started coughing as the black cloud rose up to the ceiling.

"What the heck?" Buffy asked as the black cloud of dust turned and zoomed out of the room escaping through an open window. She stared at the box.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Much to Paige's dismay, the high pitched whine continued as she stood in the Great Hall of Magic School talking to Sandra, one of the Elders.

"This is the global alert," Sandra explained, "Paige, one that only a whitelighter can hear. You should be looking at this as if it was a gift rather than a problem."

Paige turned around and glared at Sandra. "A problem, for me, is when Leo rearranges my books at home. I would classify this as a root canal?"

"Nevertheless, this is who you are, who you have become."

"Well, I don't want to become it, so fix it already!" Paige said exasperated.

"Fix it?" Sandra asked confused.

"Yeah, I don't think she wants to hear the call, ever," Leo explained.

"Well, that's impossible," Sandra said. "She doesn't have a choice. It would be as if you wished to no longer breathe."

"If this ringing doesn't stop, maybe I don't want to," Paige said as the ringing stopped. "Look, I 'm not to thrilled with you Elders meddling in mine and Buffy's lives. Why would I want to do anything for you guys right now? Or even become a full Whitelighter. "

"I know, Paige," Sandra said. "But becoming a full Whitelighter is as natural a part of your unfolding destiny as becoming a charmed one. As was becoming Buffy's Whitelighter."

"Perhaps if you explained to her why you called the alert," Leo suggested.

"We sensed a great threat, one which we have not yet been able to isolate," Sandra explained. "That is why we need every Whitelighter to be vigilant."

"Well then did you call Buffy, too?" Paige asked. "She's part Whitelighter, too."

"No we haven't," Sandra said with a sigh. "First her Whitelighter powers are only now awakening within her. Secondly she has a lot on her plate, she already has two destinies that being the Slayer and a witch would provide. Three could at this time be too much for her. We want to gradually ease her in to the added responsibilities that being a Whitelighter would entail. Especially after what happened in Los Angeles last year."

Paige let out a sigh and nodded. She remembered what Buffy, Dawn and Joyce had told her, Piper and Phoebe about the time after Buffy had been called and before the move to Sunnydale. "Just make it stop already, okay? Right now I'm not ready …"

"You know," Leo interrupted, "maybe if Paige ... helped a whitelighter-to-be instead?"

"That's a possibility," Sandra agreed.

"Why?" Paige wondered. "What would that do?"

Sandra smiled. "Helping others helps yourself ... to find some clarity."

"Well, if clarity ... makes this noise stop, whatever. I'll try it," Paige said.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Phoebe and Nina watched as Piper scryed over a Sunnydale map.

"Come on, come on. What's taking so long?" Phoebe wondered.

Piper sighed and glared at her sister. "I just want to make sure Buffy is at home, okay?"

"Here. Maybe this'll help," Nina said as she removed her necklace and gave it to Piper.

Suddenly, an alphabet block is orbed as it falls from the ceiling and down onto the middle of the scrying table. It hits Piper's scrying crystal causing her to drop the crystal on the map. "Wyatt! Time-out means no magic!"

"Scry now, parent later," Phoebe said.

Piper looked to Phoebe. "Well, you know, it would help if I wasn't the only one around here who had to discipline him. Besides I will still have to parent once we find Buffy. You know as well as I she is not going to be happy to have another destiny thrust upon her."

Phoebe sighed. "Yeah," she said as she picked up the scrying crystal and necklace. "Let me do this."

"Please, we have to hurry," Nina said. "If the box has been opened or if a demon's found it –"

"We won't let that happen. I promise," Phoebe replied. "Look, we do this all the time."

"Maybe we need a stronger connection," Piper said.

"I don't know what else to try," Nina said.

Suddenly, the scrying crystal hit the map.

"Got her," Phoebe said. "She's at Sunnydale High. Probably took the box to Giles."

Nina looked at Piper and Phoebe. She quickly headed for the door.

"Whoa!" Piper said. "Where are you going?"

"You've done your jobs. Now I have to go do mine," Nina replied.

"Wait, you saw where that got you last time," Piper said. "Why don't you let us go with you? Besides this is my step-daughter. She is more likely to accept this if I'm there than if you go alone."

"I can't let you risk it," Nina replied.

"Well, we can't let you risk it, either, not as long as there's a demon after that box," Piper replied.

Nina sighed. "All right, but I'll transport us there. It'll be faster."

"What about the Elders?" Phoebe asked.

"What about them?" Piper wondered.

"Well, I mean, it's Pandora's Box. We should probably tell them something," Phoebe said.

Piper nodded. "All right, you tell them. Mommy needs a time-out."

"A time-out from one child to go deal with another?" Phoebe said.

"Right," Piper said with a sigh. "Mommy needs a time-out from Wyatt. Buffy I think I can handle, I hope."

Nina put her hands on Piper's shoulder and they disappeared in a flutter of particles.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"You can't do this to me. It's not fair!"

Piper frowned as she and Nina headed for the Sunnydale High Library. "What's going on around here? Something's not right."

"She must've opened the box," Nina replied. "It's the first wave of sorrow. We have to hurry ... before you become affected, too."

They walked up to the library door and saw Buffy, Dawn and Giles looking over the box. They stepped into the library which drew everyone's attention.

"Piper?" Buffy said as she looked up at the older woman. "What is it?"

"This is Nina, and we need to talk to you about the box," Piper said.

"You know what it is?" Dawn asked.

Nina nodded. "You have come into possession of something more powerful than anything you have ever known."

Piper sighed. "Yeah, okay, see, I was going to go with the less intimidating tactic, but –"

Nina walked over to the box and picked it up. She looked at Buffy. "How did it come to you?"

Buffy shrugged. "I don't know. It was just there. What is going on? What is the –"

"Buffy, you've had greek mythology in your history classes right?" Piper asked.

Dawn's eyes went wide as she looked from Piper to the box and back to Piper. "Pandora's box?"

Nina nodded. "Yes, Pandora's box, a gift the gods gave to Prometheus, one that contained all of the evils of the world, until Pandora unleashed it on an unsuspecting people." She looked at the group as she glared at them. Then she said in another voice. "I hope to do the same.

"Aw, crap," Piper said as she realized that Nina wasn't Nina but the demon Katya.

Nina morphed into Katya.

"Oh, yeah, this is not good," Piper murmured. "This is not good at all."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

At the manor Sandra looked at Phoebe, who had just filled her in about the box. "This explains the global alert."

"Alert?" Phoebe asked. "What are you talking about?"

"The one that Paige and every other Whitelighter, except Buffy, heard. Pandora's Box exists solely to tempt. It's part of the grand design. If mankind chooses to open it again, so be it, but Guardians are supposed to protect it from being opened by demons," Sandra said.

"So, then we should be fine. Piper and Nina –" Phoebe said.

Sandra shook her head. "Nina never should've let it out of her sight."

"Well, apparently, she didn't have a choice," Phoebe said. "Uh, the box moved on to its next Guardian by itself."

"Oh, that's not possible," Sandra explained. "It can't move on unless the prior Guardian was already dead."

"Okay, you need to orb me to Piper immediately," Phoebe said.

Sandra nodded. "We didn't want to thrust another destiny on Buffy this soon, it's why she didn't hear the global alert," she said. "You and Piper are going to need to help her, if she is truly the next Guardian." She waved her hand and Phoebe orbed out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Phoebe orbed into the library of Sunnydale High. The lower part of the room was a mess, the computer was on the floor and the table was overturned. "Piper? Where are you?!"

Piper and Buffy peered around from behind the overturned table as Giles and Dawn peered from behind the counter.

Phoebe sighed. "Oh, thank god you all are okay.

Piper sighed. "It seems we were right, Buffy is the new Guardian of the box. Too bad she doesn't have the box to guard."

"You mean the demon was telling the truth before she tore apart the library?" Buffy asked. "You guys know I don't want anything more supernatural to deal with."

"Buffy, calm down, okay?" Phoebe said.

"What was the woman that accompanied Piper?" Giles asked.

"A demon, the real Nina's dead," Phoebe said.

"Yeah, I figured," Piper said with a sigh.

"She … she was too much for me," Buffy said with a sigh. "She was strong threw me around like a rag doll. Only Piper's power seemed to do anything."

"We need to get you goin'," Giles suggested. "If that was Pandora's box. It means when Buffy opened it she released sorrow from the box and that was is happening outside is just the first wave."

"Great, so like a little appetizer?" Phoebe asked. "And Buffy's obviously immune to it, 'cause she seems more freaked than bummed."

"Can you blame me?" Buffy asked. "I mean come on. I accepted being the Slayer and a witch thanks to Paige. I knew in time I would have to accept being a Whitelighter also. But I also knew that Paige wanted to take that slow. But this is … is just too much."

Phoebe sighed. "I know how you feel, really I do. You know when Piper and I first found out we were witches, it was really scary because we didn't have anyone to guide us. But Buffy, you have us and Paige to help you. You even have Giles and Willow and Xander. We'll help you through this."