The Power of 5
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The Manor:
"Is he gone?" Phoebe asked poking from behind Prue.
"He has to be." Said Prue staring at the space where Jeremy had been standing.
"He blew up. We vanquished a warlock. Our first one. The Power of three baby." Phoebe said as she did a silly victory dance.
"I still can't believe it." Prue said in disbelief.
"That we're the most kickass sisters in the world?" Said Phoebe brightly.
"Phoebe!" Prue said in a warning tone.
"I'm just saying Prue, I mean look what we did? We kicked his ass. Didn't we Piper?" Phoebe said as she turned to Piper.
Phoebe didn't get an answer. Piper was just standing there. Staring at the space where Jeremy had stood. She was in shock. Although she had said the spell to make Jeremy go away and he didn't, it still had worked.
She felt no love for the man anymore, but she could remember it. They had been engaged. He seemed so normal, fun and spontaneous. He had gone out of his way to care for her. Pretend to love her over a power.
He said there would be more.
Would that mean they would try and seduce her again or her sisters? The thought broke her heart.
Would she be vanquishing more fiancés?
Although she didn't want to, she let a tear roll down her face.
Prue and Phoebe looked at her and saw the tear and immediately came and hugged her.
"Piper I am so sorry. I didn't mean to rub that in your face. I forgot who he was. I'm so sorry." Phoebe said remorsefully while she held onto Piper.
"It's ok." Piper said a bit more tearfully than she expected.
"It'll be ok Piper." Prue said while rubbing her hand on her back.
"How?" Piper cried out.
"Well, you're not alone. That's two failed engagements. Join the club sister." Prue said with a small chuckle.
"No, that's not what I meant." Piper said whilst breaking the hug.
"Well, what did you mean?" Asked Phoebe softly.
"How will any of this be, ok?" Piper shouted.
"Piper..." Phoebe started but was cut off.
"No Phoebe! Tell me how it's gonna be ok! A warlock who pretended to be my boyfriend for 6 months tried to kill me and my sisters. He said more was coming. How is any of that ok?" Piper said looking at her two sisters.
"It's not Piper but it will get better because we're gonna stick together." Prue said firmly.
"It's not that simple Prue. When I lifted my hand, he froze and a couple seconds later, he was moving again. We haven't been together all day, and it took saying the power of three will set us free for Jeremy to go away. We're not gonna be together all the time Prue and if more warlocks come after us and they freeze for a second what do we do then? We know nothing about this. These powers. Warlocks. Magic. So, tell me how it will it get better if more of them come?" Piper cried.
"Piper remember what I told you this morning? We're called the charmed ones. We come from a long line of magical ancestors. This includes Melinda warren. She set a prophecy that with each generation of warren witches, they would become stronger and stronger until the coming of three sister witches. They would be the most powerful witches the world had ever seen and be a mighty force of good to reckon with. We're those sisters, and our powers will grow. Maybe one of these days you will be freezing the entire world. As for the warlocks and magic we'll figure that out together. Prue is right it will get better honey." Phoebe said stepping forward and taking Piper's hands and squeezing them.
"I really hope you're right about that Phoebe." Piper said quietly. She then took her hands away and was about to walk out of the attic.
"Wait Piper look I know what just happened is really hard to process but we still need to talk." Phoebe said to Piper.
"Phoebe please I just wanna sleep and give myself time to adjust." Piper said tiredly.
"But..."
"Go ahead Piper we'll talk about all of this in depth tomorrow." Prue said with a tone of sympathy and then asked. "By the way Piper did you get the job?"
"Yeah, I start Monday. Night." Piper answered.
She might not have the job if her freezing power didn't kick in. And wasn't that something to think about?
"Ok, Congrats. Night Piper." Prue said and Piper nodded and walked out of the attic.
"Prue! What about Chris? We need a plan." Phoebe blurted out.
"Then we will come up with one but right now, Piper needs to rest. Now pick up the book and let's go to the kitchen." Prue said and also walked out of the attic.
Phoebe did as she was told and took up the book and brought it downstairs.
Once in the kitchen Prue made two coffees. She noticed that the cat was still here, and she merely just looked at Prue. Something about this cat was very interesting. It was the way she looked at Prue and Phoebe as if she knew what they were doing. Prue decided to take three slices of ham from the fridge and give them to her.
"Ok now explain to me again what you saw in this vision of yours. So, we can work out what we're dealing with." Prue said after sitting back down on the table.
"Ok so Chris was standing in what I assume is his living room and was backing himself into the wall. These two warlocks, well I think they were coming at him. The woman had a ball of purple light in her hand which I've found out is called an energy ball. The man had an Athame in his hand. The woman throws the energy ball and Chris ducks, but the guy uses that distraction and ends up stabbing him. The Athame glows and then they both leave." Phoebe said.
"The Athame glows?" Prue questioned.
"When you were in the bath, I looked in the book to see if Athame's were in the book. There were three sections. Demonic Athame's. Witch Athame's. Even Athame's that are famous. But the Athame that glows means, it's absorbs your powers, magic, soul, life, blood, organs and even senses if you're specific." Phoebe said with a grimace.
"Are you being serious?" Prue said not liking the sound of that list.
"Yes, but I think powers are the main use for them other than killing and rituals." Phoebe said.
"So, this warlock is stealing powers from him? Does that mean he's a witch? Do male witches even exist?" Prue questioned.
It had only just occurred to Phoebe that Chris might be magical. He seemed disturbed at the hospital.
Was it a magical reason?
"I mean, I guess but either way, we have to save him." Phoebe said firmly.
"Ok and the other vision?" Prue asked.
"That was of the calendar. It basically told me that what I saw in my vision was going to happen tomorrow." Phoebe said sure of herself.
Just then the grandfather clock struck. Phoebe looked at the clock in the kitchen it had just gone midnight.
"Correction today." Phoebe said.
"Do you know roughly what time this is taking place?" She questioned.
"It was dark in my vision but anywhere between 4 and 11:59pm." Phoebe said.
"Great! How did you find out his name?" Prue asked frustrated.
"I got a vision when I touched Paige in the hospital and asked her. She kinda just met him a little while beforehand. I had to style it out. She got suspicious." Phoebe said taking sip of the coffee.
"Oh no Paige. We're gonna have to cancel dinner." Prue said rubbing her hands across her face.
"Why?" Phoebe asked confused.
"Oh, I don't know maybe because we're not normal now. We have powers and we're trying to chase after warlocks. What if I accidently moved something in front her?" Prue said as if it were obvious.
"Prue we can't just give up our lives because we have powers now. Besides we don't have Paige's number so we can't call her to cancel. Look we find Chris, save him and have dinner with Paige. Ok? I refuse to give up my life. I will take on my wiccan duty, but I will have a life. Besides there must be loads of other witches out there and they hide their magic well because we didn't know about it before, and they're living everyday lives." Phoebe said confident in her logic.
"If you say so Phoebe. Alright so we need a way to find this Chris. He has a surname, right?" Prue said in a tired voice.
"Perry." Phoebe answered.
"Ok let's narrow down what we know. Chris is an innocent. Two warlocks are after him. He may be a witch. He gets attacked in a house. We were at the hospital with him. So, there's our starting point." Prue said thinking hard about the situation.
"What's our starting point?" Phoebe asked confused.
"Well, there's one fact that can help save him. He was at the hospital. We go back to the hospital." Prue explained to Phoebe.
"He left the hospital." Phoebe said.
"If you're a patient in a hospital Phoebe, the doctor will have your details on file. We get his details and bingo we've found him." Prue said in a rather obvious voice.
God Phoebe could be thick sometimes, she thought.
"How we gonna do that? There's a reason for patient confidentiality. The hospital is never gonna give us Chris's information not without a police badge." Phoebe said shooting down Prue's logic.
"That's where Piper comes in. We ask for Chris. The woman types. Piper freezes. You look for the address. Done. Now that's step 1 onto step 2." Prue said.
She may not have wanted to be a witch, but she wasn't the type to not be head on in whatever field she entered. Seeming as magic had been brought her way, she had better come to terms and get a grip with it.
Phoebe had to admit that was a good plan.
Now came the harder part of it, saving Chris.
For one she didn't know if these warlocks were the same as Jeremy and then there was two of them. In the book of shadows there was a section on warlocks, and it had an introduction page. There was a bit on vanquishing methods. Spells, Potions, Athame's or a Power depending on what it was. There was a listed weakness. A potion that would blind them with light.
Phoebe would have made it, but potions would have to wait. She knew nothing about potions yet and probably didn't have the ingredients.
So, the question was how they would defeat the warlocks?
"Hey, I gave you step 1, you show me step 2." Prue said grabbing Phoebes attention back.
"Ok we go in and... that's all I got." Phoebe said with a frown.
"I guess we improvise on the most important part of the plan then and use the power of 3 to stop them." Prue said while she gritted her teeth.
"No, we can't." Phoebe declared thinking improvisation wasn't the best bet for their second day of witchcraft.
"Ok we go in, me and Piper distract while you make sure Chris is out of harm's way and then we use the Power of 3 to vanquish. Capice?" Prue said looking at Phoebe.
"Ok." She said not really having any better ideas.
"Good in that case let's get some shut eye. We talk to Piper in the morning. We go to the hospital. We save Chris. Have dinner with Paige, even though it's a bad idea. We talk more. We reflect and rest and then we bitch and ultimately carry on with the rest our lives even though this whole witch kick will become a pain in the ass. Sort of like you." Prue said nonchalant and very sarcastic at the same time.
"Sounds like a plan." Phoebe said way to chipper for Prue's liking.
The two sisters finished their coffees in silence. Although they had made some sort of peace in the previous hours of the night it would still take time for their relationship to get on track. Prue washed up her cup and stated she was going to bed.
Prue still couldn't believe the events of tonight. One minute she was arguing with Phoebe and the next she was flinging warlocks with her mind and now she was trying to go after them.
She had just spent half an hour in the kitchen making up a battle strategy. She wasn't a soldier; she was a curator and yet she was now trying to fight magical beings with intent on killing innocent people.
She didn't even have time to grasp the fact that she was a witch. No, she had to get a grip. She didn't want to let a boy die just because she couldn't pull it together. She would help save this kid and then mourn her normal life.
Prue climbed into bed thinking and thinking and just plain thinking. About the last couple of hours about what would happen next. She didn't know but she would be ready somehow. She and her sisters would handle it, even if it took time.
Piper was already in bed, but she hadn't gone to sleep. She had heard her sisters come from the attic and go downstairs but they hadn't bothered her. She didn't hate her sisters. She loved Prue and Phoebe but how could they stand there and say all of this was gonna be ok?
Phoebe was so excited about this, but it was Prue that was surprising her. Jeremy had just tried to kill them, Phoebe gave them weird powers that he wanted, they had just killed him, and Prue was so calm.
Why was she calm? Was she ok with this? Was she excited like Phoebe? Somehow, she didn't think so. Tomorrow she would talk to her sisters, and she would look into a way of getting rid of these powers. They didn't have them before so there must be way to not have them now.
Phoebe had sat in the kitchen staring into her empty coffee mug. Prue had left and Phoebe relayed the half made, anything could go wrong with this, and we could die plan.
It was a good plan but there were so many flaws, and they were so new to these powers.
Something could go wrong and this time their adversaries could win.
Jeremy was scary enough and the two she had seen in her Premonition looked bad. Phoebe had to admit that the power and spell part of this package was awesome, but the warlock part was definitely not.
However, she knew that saving Chris and any other innocents would be worth it. She couldn't help but feel bad though. She could remember Prue's words that had hurt her very much and she kept on seeing Piper's distressafter vanquishing Jeremy.
She had every right to be after all. She just vanquished her fiancé. She felt like she had hurt her sisters by releasing their heritage. She probably had but it was their destiny, and they would embrace it even if it was a hard thing to do.
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The Manor: The Morning
Prue had woken up.
Her alarm would go off at 06:15 every day except on the weekends.
She laid there in bed thinking about the events of yesterday. It was only now just really sinking in that she was a witch.
That her sisters were witches.
That she had a power and magic.
That she vanquished Jeremy last night.
Her head started to hurt again.
She felt like she had been asleep for years and pushed herself up. She noted the slight change she felt. She felt more comfortable and relaxed as if her whole body had been tense before although she had never noticed this until now.
The air was slightly different too. It was perfectly normal, but it was like she could taste the magic in the air. She felt strong but not like lifting up a truck but like as if she had just recovered from an illness. Her senses seemed clearer, and she felt great. 'Wow! Is this what it felt like or was it a side effect?' She thought to herself. Either way she felt good.
She had only just noted the time. It said 13:58. Wow she couldn't recall a time where she had slept this late. Phoebe had said that it would be dark when this Chris guy would be attacked. She needed to move.
She picked out an outfit and walked out her room and into the bathroom. None her sisters seemed to be up. She got in the shower and really wanted the hot water to do its job and relieve her of her stress, but she thought she better rush.
After 10 minutes or so she got out and put her clothes on, brushed her teeth, did her hair and makeup. Which she somehow rushed in an extra 10 minutes. When she opened the door Piper was there.
"Morning." Piper said a tad awkward.
"Afternoon. How are you feeling?" Prue asked carefully.
"I've had better days, but I'll manage. Afternoon?" Piper said with a weak smile before creasing her brow.
"Yeah, we all slept through the morning." Prue said with a grimace.
"Right." Piper said not really caring about this piece of information.
"Listen Piper we seriously need to talk so you need to rush like no more than 10 minutes max in the shower." Prue said serious.
"Why?" Piper asked confused.
"Just trust me and hurry, I'm gonna wake up Phoebe." Prue said with a plea in her voice.
Prue hugged her sister and told her she would be fine before walking to Phoebe's room. When she opened the door, she saw Phoebe sprawled out across her bed and snoring.
Prue snorted at the sight. Phoebe only snored when she slept on her stomach. Prue walked over and shook her awake. Phoebe did some karate chop in her sleep before realising it was Prue who was waking her up.
"Prue? What's going on?" Asked Phoebe groggily whilst rubbing sleep out of her eyes.
"We overslept Phoebe. It's almost half past 2." Prue said.
"What?" Said Phoebe jumping up, removing any grogginess she had momentarily just felt.
"It's coming up for half 2. You need to get dressed. Pipers in the bathroom so you use the downstairs one." Prue said.
With that Prue walked out of the room and Phoebe found some clothes to wear and rushed downstairs.
20 minutes later Piper and Phoebe came downstairs washed and dressed. Piper walked into the kitchen. Prue was sitting there drinking coffee and had just finished a bowl of cereal. She put it in the sink and sat back at the table. Phoebe went to the bread bin and put some toast in the toaster.
"Hey, shouldn't you be rushing off to work?" Piper asked Prue while looking at the clock.
"Oh, right you don't know. I quit my job." Prue said casually.
"Wait, what?" Piper semi yelled.
"Roger was pissing me off and it was a lousy job so I quit, but don't worry I will be looking for another job very soon." Prue said firmly.
Piper just looked at her.
Before Prue would be losing her mind but now, she was just chilled out about the fact that she had no job.
Being a witch was already taking its toll on Prue.
"Why are you staring at me?" Prue asked looking at her.
"Because you've been a witch for 38 hours and 50 minutes and already, you're changing." Piper said frustrated.
"I haven't changed Piper." Prue declared whilst looking up at her.
"The Prue I know would be raging from France to Australia because she didn't have a job: quitted or not." Piper said while placing a hand on her hip.
"We have bigger problems right now but like I said I'll work on finding a job and I haven't changed." Prue stated.
"If you say so Prue." Piper said in tone that said clearly, I don't believe that.
Prue was about to argue with Piper but chose not to. Now was not the time to be fighting with her sisters. They needed to be on the same page to deal with things.
This was a huge change in their lives, and they needed to stick together to deal with it.
Piper was completely wrong.
Prue hadn't changed. She was different yes, that was because she now had magic but otherwise, she was still the same old her.
Phoebe chose to say nothing. Piper clearly wasn't going to like what was gonna happen next.
Phoebe came and sat down at the table. She gave Prue a look and pointed at the clock. It was 5 to 3. Time seemed to be moving really quick, all of sudden.
After her little tiff Piper didn't say anything.
She put on the tv and made herself coffee and also made some toast. She only spoke when she noticed a cat in the kitchen.
After Prue gave an explanation and Piper went back to watching the tv. The news channel was still talking about the woman no, witch who was killed on Wednesday night. The news anchor named her as Serena Fredrick, she was 26 and lived in a 1-bedroom apartment who worked as a receptionist for some corporate company.
Piper found it so sad to know that this woman had died because of Jeremy. She wondered if he had deceived Serena and the others the way he had with her.
Prue wanted to make sure her and sisters ate something before going to try and fight more warlocks.
Piper was clearly having a bad reaction to this witch business. Prue was too but she apparently could handle it better. Phoebe had finished her toast and it had just gone 3. They needed to make a move. 'Here goes nothing.' she thought to herself.
"Ok Piper now that we've eaten, I'm sorry to say this but we need to use our powers. Phoebe got a vision yesterday in hospital..."
"Wait hospital?" Piper said in a worried voice and looked to Phoebe.
"She fell her off her bike. Any who she got a vision and saw these two warlocks attacking this guy. We wanted to talk about this last night, but you needed to rest, besides I wasn't expecting us all to wake up so late. Look we need to go to the hospital now so we can find out where this guy lives and then go to his house and save him. We need to fight these warlocks and then..." She looked Phoebe.
"Vanquish them with the Power of 3." Phoebe finished for her.
"Yeah, we came up with the plan last night and we sort of need to go now." Prue said a bit urgently.
Piper looked between the both of them and could tell they were being serious. She couldn't believe it. They almost died last night, and they wanted to go fight another warlock no, two warlocks.
They were insane. It wasn't everyday Prue and Phoebe sided together or worked together. Not because they hated each other but more about little petty things.
Prue always thought she was right, and Phoebe always challenged that growing up. That usually ended up in an argument that Piper would have to mediate between. Now they were both agreeing with each other and making plans together. At least this witch thing was bringing them together if it meant saving a life.
"You're both insane." Piper stated while crossing her arms.
"Piper if we don't help this boy, he's gonna die." Phoebe said.
She could hear the unspoken plea in her voice. Piper just continued to stare at them.
Pheobe groaned.
'Piper please help us or it's your fault he dies and I'm sorry to guilt trip you, but this is his life we're talking about." Snapped Phoebe which earned her a glare form Prue.
Piper sighed before saying "Well I guess I don't have a choice, do I?" She couldn't handle guilt like that.
"Great ok, Phoebe grab a pad and pen, and, in the attic, I saw a baseball bat in the corner. Get that and then your coat." Prue said standing up.
Phoebe wanted to ask why but they were wasting time. So, she did as she was told and rushed up the stairs. Prue then grabbed her car keys and purse, and jacket and Piper did the same. Both went out the door and went into Prue's car. Two minutes later Phoebe came outside with the note pad and pen, the baseball bat and her jacket and purse.
She then jumped into the back seat.
"Why did you want me to get these?" Phoebe asked as Prue turned on the engine.
"So, you can write down the address and if the warlocks attack you." Prue said as if it were obvious.
"Right." Phoebe said and then grimaced.
Her only protection was a baseball bat? That sucked. She thought to herself.
"And what's a baseball bat gonna do to a warlock?" Piper asked with a note of sarcasm in her voice.
"Well hopefully nothing, as you and me will deal with the warlocks." Prue said and smiled sweetly at sister before adding "But just in case." And with that she drove out of the driveway.
Piper glared at Prue but said nothing. The 20-minute Journey was silent between the 3 sisters. All thinking about the situation.
When they got to the hospital it was coming up for Half past 3. Phoebe wasn't sure what time this was gonna happen but the sooner they got to him, the better chance they had of saving him.
The sisters got out of the car and walked into the hospital. Phoebe suggested they go to the floor they were on yesterday. They went to the elevator and went to the floor.
"Piper, you need to freeze the woman when she types in this guy's details. Ok?" Prue said.
"Wait I've only used it twice. How do you expect me to just do it?" Piper asked.
"Piper, you have to try." Phoebe said.
"Fine I'll try and if it doesn't work?" She said looking at the both of them.
"We'll work on that." Prue said unsure herself.
When the doors opened Prue went to the desk. With Piper and Phoebe behind her. She was happy it was a different woman.
"Hi, our little cousin was admitted in here and we want to see if he's ok." Prue said as genuine as she could."
"Name please." The woman asked.
"Chris Perry." Prue said. Her heartbeat seemed to be pumping. It was what happened when you were deceiving someone. You always got nervous about it. Wondering if they were gonna catch you out. No matter what the intention.
"Ah here we go." The woman said.
"Piper now." Phoebe whispered.
Piper did a clenching gesture and then spread out her hands and nothing happened.
"It didn't work." Piper whispered.
"looks like your cousin was discharged yesterday." The woman said.
"Are you sure?" Phoebe asked and stepped forward.
"Appears so." The woman said smiling.
Prue heard Phoebe and Piper. Piper couldn't do it. How could she make the power work on command or response? She was angry when her power worked. What would Piper's be? She said she did it twice and one of those times was with Jeremy.
He attacked her so she must have been scared.
So all she had to do was scare her.
A woman was walking by with a coffee near Piper and Phoebe. Prue squinted her eyes at a pen on the desk and made it zoom at the women's feet. She came tumbling at Piper and Phoebe. Piper responded by lifting up her hands and suddenly everything froze.
"Whoa." Phoebe said in amazement.
"Piper, you did it." Prue said as if the near accident had nothing to do with her.
"How comes we're not frozen?" Asked Phoebe, looking around.
"Maybe it doesn't work on witches or family." Piper said weakly and astounded.
"How long does this last Piper?" Prue said looking around.
"Not long." Answered Piper.
"Phoebe now." Prue ordered.
Phoebe went around the desk and looked at the screen.
All of Chris's information was displayed on the screen. It was the same guy from yesterday.
She saw the address and wrote it down.
She then came back round and went back to her spot however they noticed the women about to trip and her coffee liquid frozen in mid-air. Phoebe took a step back while Piper went behind the women. Just then everything unfroze, and Piper grabbed the woman from falling flat on her face. The coffee hit the ground.
The woman thanked Piper and left, visibly embarrassed.
"Well thank you. I guess we'll be leaving." Prue said and with that Prue, Piper and Phoebe turned and went back to the elevators.
Once inside, they were alone.
"Oh my god, you guys. I can't believe we just did that. We're like Charlie's witches or something." Phoebe said with pure excitement.
Prue and Piper both shook their heads at Phoebe, but amazingly, both cracked a smile.
They came out of the elevator and out of the hospital.
8 minutes had passed. They got back into the car.
"Where to Phoebe?" Prue asked starting the engine.
"45 Persil Lane, 94115, San Francisco." She said reading the piece of paper.
"God help us." Piper cried as Prue drove out of the hospital car park.
They were on their way to save Chris.
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