Hard to believe it's been so long...
Thank you to everyone who liked, followed, reviewed or just read while I was gone. It never stopped meaning so much to me.
I know that it's all just for fun and there's nothing to apologize for, but I am sorry. I've been wanting to get back to this story many times, and I really hope I can keep at it moving forward.
"Hello, Victor," Marshall said, as he morphed into Perry Halliwell's face. Fritz and him had waited for the mortal in his hotel suite, while Cynda stayed at their house with the real Perry.
Victor turned to the shapeshifter brothers, startled, but said as calmly as he could, "I take it that was you in the Manor, and not the real Peregrine."
"I think you should be a little more concerned with what we're going to do to your little girl," Perry-Marshall corrected him.
"I was wondering when evil would rear its ugly head."
"That's actually your daughter's head," Fritz mockingly said, making Victor glare at him.
"Anyway, consider it reared," Marshall told the mortal, his tone as friendly as ever, "I don't know what kind of people you're used to dealing with, but I'd lay serious coin that they aren't willing to rip you into a thousand pieces and dance on your entrails."
"Ahh, so you're lawyers," Victor answered, trying to sound unthreatened. But he couldn't quite sound as confident as he tried. After all, these blood thirsty demons were holding his daughter hostage. "And here I was assuming you were shape shifters."
"Those are clever words for a man whose daughter's about to be an appetizer," Fritz said, irritated by this mortal's feigned confidence.
"Cocky words for men who can't get a simple book out of a house."
"That's why you're still alive," Marshall interrupted their argument, "And if you're useful, you can even save little Perry's life."
"After tonight, the girls won't let me or anything that looks like me back into their lives. Let alone the house," Victor reminded the eldest of the Shapeshifter siblings, "You know that. I have officially been kicked out."
"But there is one sister you can reach," Marshall countered.
"Phoebe," Victor caught on, "That's why you need me. Because only her real father would know what buttons to push. The ones that would get me back in. If you kill me, you'll never know what they are. And you'll never get the Book of Shadows."
"That's exactly right, Dad," Marshall told him, nodding and smiling with Perry's face.
The next morning, Phoebe walked into the dining room where her sisters sat and ate breakfast dejectedly. "Good morning, Phoebe," she said in a sarcastic cheerfulness while holding her cup of coffee.
None of her sisters responded. Or even lifted her gaze.
"Ah, guys," she pleaded, waving a white napkin, "Can we call a truce? Just for five minutes, please?"
Taking a deep breath she added, "I have a confession. Remember when we agreed to not see dad? Yeah, well… Uhm, I did."
"Hello?" Piper reminded her, "I was with you."
"No," she explained, "By myself. Before dinner. And I had a premonition about dad when he hugged me. He was stealing the Book of Shadows."
The anger on Perry's face didn't surprise her sisters. They were after all, hurt and angry too. Little did they know, naturally, that what they saw wasn't the outrage of a daughter betrayed – but of a shapeshifter whose plans have been foiled.
Seeing the look in the eyes of her twin and their oldest sister, Phoebe added, "Yeah, you were right about him.
"I didn't… want the premonition to be true. I was hoping, praying, that there was a perfectly good explanation for it. Hoping that… that he was really here to be with us. I just wanted him back in our lives. He's our dad."
Getting up to hug her younger sister, Prue said softly, "I know, Phoebe. I know."
But it seemed that Phoebe's twin wasn't as willing to forgive and forget. Perry stormed out of the dining room towards the front door, presumably to go sit on the steps to cool off.
As her eyes followed her younger sister, Piper suddenly noticed something small and green on the floor and quietly called, "Hey, look."
With Prue and Phoebe behind her, Piper picked up what she now saw were two small vials of some dark green liquid. "What's this?" she showed her sisters the vials, "And what's it doing here?"
"Maybe Perry knows," Phoebe said, truly hoping for a chance to have a one-on-one talk with her twin so they could stop fighting, "I'll go ask her."
As Phoebe left the house, she didn't immediately see Perry anywhere. Shrugging, she figured she could at least pick up the newspaper. Fritz was hanging out next to his car across the street and she waved and smiled at him, but as she turned back towards the manor, she was startled to see her father.
Phoebe gasped, partly just from surprise, but also quite scared.
"Don't be afraid," Victor told her, as calming as he could manage to be while knowing what he knew.
"Wha…" Phoebe's voice was shaky and emotional, "You have to leave!"
"Phoebe, please," he insisted, glancing at Fritz, "This is very important."
"I can't. I don't wanna talk to you anymore."
"Phoebe… You gotta get the book out of the house."
"You have to leave," the witch told her father again, and started to walk away but he caught her arms.
"Phoebe!" he said sternly, no longer able to fake calm, "Trust me! Look!"
This triggered a premonition for the young Halliwell witch. She saw, as Victor saw last night in his hotel suite, Marshall and Fritz together as the older brother's face morphed into Perry's.
Phoebe was immobilized in shock, her father holding her by the arms, as she recovered from the vision.
"Hey," she heard Perry calling from behind her, coming nearer, "I thought we made it clear we want nothing to do with you."
Taking a breath and calming down, Phoebe could see through the act now. Marshall standing next to her may have looked like Perry, may have mimicked her twin sister as well as anyone could, but there was zero doubt in her mind the premonition was true.
"We were just saying goodbye," Victor told Marshall.
"Yeah…" Phoebe said, trying not to display her emotions too much, "I gotta run." And with a quick wave she bolted towards the manor's door.
"Dad's not after the book, it's Marshall," she called out to her older sisters as soon as she came inside.
"What?" Piper asked in confusion.
"I had a premonition," Phoebe tried to explain quickly, knowing Marshall could follow her back any second, "Perry isn't Perry. That's Marshall. Gotta banish them."
"Banish who?" Prue asked her, as confused as Piper was.
"The neighbors. They're shapeshifters. Fritz, and Marshall and their sister. They have Perry."
"Hey," Phoebe looked in fear as Fritz walked in, "The door was unlocked."
"What do you mean, 'they have Perry'?" Prue asked her quietly.
"Phoebes?" Piper echoed the question.
Phoebe looked around, feeling helpless, and then her eyes landed on the two vials now sitting on the table.
"Phoebe?" Perry looked confused, just like their older sisters, as she came into the manor, "What's going on?"
"These are vanquishing potions," Phoebe whispered, realizing the real Perry must have prepared these right before she was abducted. "Prue, you gotta trust me. This isn't Perry. They're shapeshifters. Use the potions on them."
Almost on instinct, Pure telekinetically hit Fritz with a vial. As the glass shattered, the shapeshifter melted in screams of agony. All four Halliwell sisters gasped at the terrible sight.
Their father, who followed Perry in and now stood near her said, "Listen to your sister, Prue. You have to banish the second shapeshifter."
"Timeout!" Piper said, frustrated with confusion, "We are not vanquishing our sister!"
"Don't worry, sweetie," her father said, "Everything's gonna be fine. This isn't Peregrine."
"You can't trust him!" Perry told her sisters desperately.
"Wait a second," Piper tried to make sense of it all, "Five minutes ago you said Dad was after the book. Now it's Perry, but she's actually Marshall?!"
"Please," Phoebe tried to make her sisters understand, "I wouldn't say it if I wasn't a hundred percent sure. This isn't our sister. And every second we waste, Cynda could hurt the real Perry."
That was enough to convince Prue, and she hit Marshall with the second vial.
More screams.
Cynda knew what this meant. Both her brothers have been vanquished by the witches.
"No Marshall, no Fritz, and definitely no Book of Shadows," she told the bruised and bound Perry Halliwell, "But at least I can still get a fine meal out of your flesh."
Morphing into her true form, her long sharp teeth were an inch away from the witch's skin when a force pulled her away. Bright golden ropes appeared, tightening around the shapeshifter. Cynda felt like she's being pulled in all directions at once, and just as the Charmed Ones burst into the room – she disappeared in a blinding flash of golden light right in front of Perry's eyes.
As her sisters rushed to check on her and help her up, the youngest Halliwell thought with worry that they haven't seen the last of that demon.
Perry had spent much of that day upstairs resting in her bedroom. She's been through a lot in the last 24 hours, both physically and emotionally, and needed to take time to recover. When she eventually came down, her sisters were sitting together in the living room.
"No, Andy, I'm fine. Really," Prue said, on the phone, "Dad's gonna be here any minute, so can I take a raincheck on dinner? Okay. Thanks for the good advice. Bye."
"So, he's 'Dad' now?" Perry asked, her tone not angry but certainly unhappy about it. Prue was the only one of her sisters who was always on the same page with her when it came to Victor. Until now, apparently.
"Yes, Perry," Prue answered, even if she knew that wasn't what her sister wanted to hear, "After how he helped us get you back – he is."
"From what you told me it sounds like all he did was trigger Phoebe's premonition," said Perry, "Supposedly on purpose."
Not wanting to let this turn into an argument, Prue changed the subject. "My dress looks good on you, by the way," she told Phoebe, who as always didn't ask for permission to borrow it.
"I don't have any nice clothes, Prue," Phoebe defended herself.
"Dad said it was casual."
"I don't care. I wanna look nice for him. Who knows how long it'll be before we see him again."
With a groan and a roll of her eyes, Perry gave up on that conversation and went to the manor's entrance. Leo should be here any minute, she thought, that will give me a welcome break from this… Victor-fest.
And punctual as ever, when Perry opened the door, her friend has just arrived and was about to press the doorbell. "Hey, thanks for doing this," she greeted him with a smile, "Wanna pop in and meet my sisters before we get started?"
With a smile and a short nod, Leo followed the young witch inside the manor.
As they walked into the living room, it seemed like her sisters expected it to be Victor. But they looked far from disappointed. Especially Phoebe who seemed dangerously close to start drooling.
"Umm, hi," Prue greeted him, "You must be Perry's friend."
"Yes, you can call me Leo."