Post by StoryGirl83 on Sept 21, 2013 23:08:37 GMT -5
Flashback
Chapter Twenty-One - How It All Went Wrong
For several seconds no one did anything. Then Chris reached out his hand and grasped the door handle.
Nothing happened.
He turned the knob and pulled it open. With a big grin he walked into the manor and hurled himself at his dad as Leo reentered the room. “Daddy!”
The cans in Leo’s arms dropped to the ground and rolled all over the place.
Following suit, Wyatt followed after his little brother and hugged both of them as best his short child’s arms could manage. “Dad!”
After several long seconds, Wyatt reluctantly let go of his dad and his brother to walk over to where his mom lay on the floor. He turned to face Prue. “Aunt Prue, would you wake them, please. I’m this close. I want my mom back.”
Prue sighed. “We need to get a whitelighter here, because they are going to need healing. Being dead I wouldn’t call one, but you’re a witch. You should be able to call yours here.”
Wyatt looked at her surprised. “You don’t know?” Turning to Leo, he asked, “How does she not know?” There was accusation in his voice as he added, “I thought she said Chris and I were all you talked about.”
Prue frowned. “What are you talking about? You are all he talked about.”
“Then, how can you not know that I can heal?” he wanted to know.
Prue looked sharply at Leo. “What’s this? How? They’re not whitelighters. I know Paige helped you heal Cole that one time, but it required you to do it. How could your son possibly be able to heal when he is no more a whitelighter than my sister is?”
“We can talk about that later,” Leo suggested. “Right now let’s just stick with the fact that he’s right. He can heal and we need to wake them up. It’s been seven years, Prue.”
“Eleven for me,” Prue whispered in return as she stared down at her sisters. “You’re right. I’ve got a spell to uncast.”
“Who was the worst off?” Wyatt asked as he got down on his knees near them.
Piper and Paige are passed out on a couch. Phoebe is in a chair across from them. Suddenly all three sisters gasp and sit up.
“Ah, the astral projection worked,” Paige commented panting.
“Thank you, Prue,” Piper breathed, thinking about her lost sister.
Unbeknownst to them, Prue was watching, a smile on her lips as she heard Piper’s words. So far so good, she thought.
“The book,” Phoebe announced as she pushed herself to a standing position.
As soon as they reached the attic, they headed toward the Book of Shadows. If their plan was going to work, they were going to need all the help they could get and the Book was vital to them. Running across the room they stopped in front of the Book. Phoebe and Paige stood on either side of Piper and the clasped hands.
“Okay,” Phoebe announced, breathing a little harder than usual. “This may be the last time we have to say this.”
“I’ll hold you to it,” Piper assured her.
As one they began to chant, “The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free. The Power of Three will set us free.”
They let go of each other’s hands and touched the book. When nothing happened Piper opened it and started looking through it. The sound of sirens from the street stopped her and she headed toward the window.
“What?” Phoebe asked as she and Paige headed over there with her.
They all looked out the attic windows at the cars and SWAT van converging on the street in front of the house. They watched as men jumped out of the SWAT van and ran toward harbored places in front of the house carrying guns.
They saw Agent Keyes amidst the group giving out orders and as he looked up it was clear that he spotted them.
“What the hell happened?” Paige asked, staring down onto the street.
“I don’t know,” Phoebe admitted. “But if they come in here before we get Zankou, it’s going to be a bloodbath.”
“Come on,” Piper directed, “we gotta find that spell.”
They walked away from the windows, Piper carrying the Book, just as Zankou appeared in flames.
“I underestimated you,” he informed them in an annoyed voice. “It won’t happen, again.” He threw an energy ball at them.
Paige orbed them out and it went right through where they had been standing.
Within moments, Zankou flamed in and found them in the basement chanting. “Natum adai necral . . .”
Zankou waved his hands and the sisters flew across the basement crashing into some boxes. He stepped down from the stairs where he had appeared and stepped closer to the hole in the floor. “It’s too late,” he announced to them. “You can’t take the Nexus. It has been in me. It knows me now. I should have done this before.”
As they got up he turned his back on them and started chanting. “Natum adai necral. Daya intay layok.”
The hole in the floor lit up and the shadow rose out of it. Not the Nexus, for it has never been the Nexus, always the shadow, always Phoebe’s “Woogieman”. And the spell they had was designed not to destroy the Nexus, but to vanquish the one being who had resided within the Nexus for so very long. The shadow approached Zankou and stopped just in front of his face. He waited patiently as a moment later the Shadow entered him through his eyes. His task complete he turned around and faced them, his eyes black.
The girls stood there waiting.
“You can’t stop me now,” he announced in an unnatural voice.
“No?” Paige queried.
“Watch us,” Piper suggested.
As one the girls read the spell that Paige produced out of her pocket. “From ancient times, this power came, for all to have, but none to reign.”
Zankou began to flash black and red and pain showed on his face as he screamed in that unnatural tone, “No!”
“Take it now, show no mercy, for this power can no longer me,” they finished up.
Zankou turned redder and redder as the Shadow within him was vanquished and it was taking him with it. He screamed.
All around them wind blew from nowhere and the sisters grasped hands, holding on as if to anchor themselves.
“This is it!” Phoebe exclaimed.
As Zankou exploded the power washed over the three sisters, decimating the basement around them.
It was several minutes later when Phoebe pushed herself out of the debris. “Well, that was fun. Let’s not do it, again.”
“Is he really gone?” Paige asked, looking at the gaping hole in the basement floor.
“Zankou and the Woogie, too,” Phoebe grinned. “I used to be terrified of that thing. It’s good to know it’s gone for good.
“Let’s get out of here,” Piper suggested. “I’m going to hate leaving here, but there’s no way we can stay, not with every cop and his dog out there.”
Paige nodded. “I guess it’s really o . . .”
Piper and Phoebe turned to face her startled and found no one there.
“Paige?” Phoebe asked confused.
“Paige!” Piper exclaimed at the same time, scared. A glow surrounded her as she astral projected back into her body in her bedroom. Something had prevented them from leaving the manor and there was no time to figure out what, not with Zankou fast on their trail.
Piper and Phoebe may not have known what happened to Paige, but Prue saw it all. She didn’t feel the need to watch her sisters fight Zankou, but their bodies, that had scared her. When she had suggested the idea to Leo and given him the spell she hadn’t thought about their bodies. And ever since they started using it, she’d thought of nothing else.
She watched as Piper returned to her body and looked around the room.
Next to Piper, Phoebe was doing the same thing. There was no sign of Paige, but Prue had seen what had happened. Piper and Phoebe could handle the immediate problem, but Paige was going to need medical help and fast. Since her sisters no longer had a whitelighter and she was dead, there was only one person she could think to turn to.
Having no idea that Prue had been there, Piper ran out of the room into the hall. She saw the back of a woman walking down the hall toward Paige. Paige lay in a heap against the wall as if she’d been slammed into it.
Piper waved her arms and the woman froze in her tracks. There wasn’t time to figure out if this was a demon or just an evil human. There was only time to stop her from getting any closer to Paige. “Phoebe, she’s hurt!”
Phoebe reached Paige not long after Piper did. “We can’t orb with Paige knocked out,” Phoebe muttered. “Not that it would do any good when we can’t even orb out of the house,” she retorted. She stopped and looked over at Piper, concern written on her face. “She is only knocked out, right?”
Piper nodded.
“We’re surrounded,” Phoebe added, unnecessarily.
“Let’s just get Paige away from here first,” Piper ordered.
“Her neck,” Phoebe protested. “They always say . . .”
“’They’ didn’t have a demon just down the hall,” Piper reminded her as she squatted down next to Paige and lifted her into her arms.
“I can’t premonition the demon away, you know,” Phoebe reminded her.
“You also can’t lift Paige,” Piper shot back. “Let’s go.”
They were almost to the end of the hall when they heard noises behind them.
“She’s coming,” Phoebe moaned.
“Get in front of me,” Piper ordered. “You can move faster.”
Phoebe moved as fast as she could around Piper and headed down the stairs. Hoping there was some way out of the backyard she headed toward the conservatory.
There she was met by the woman from upstairs. Her eyes flashed black and she laughed evilly at Phoebe. “Thought you lost me did you?” She formed fire in her hands and threw it at Phoebe.
Phoebe only barely managed to avoid her.
Prue forced her body to materialize not far from Leo. In the middle of a crowd, no one would really think about whom she was or what she was doing her. She was just anonymous. She managed to reach Leo quickly. He was walking away from the front line looking concerned and disappointed. Prue met up with him and tapped him on the shoulder.
Leo turned around to look at who had done this. He figured someone had just jostled him in the crowd. Seeing Prue, his eyes widened and he opened his mouth to say something.
She covered his mouth with her hand. “No time. Zankou’s gone, but another demon is attacking. Paige is injured and something is keeping them from orbing out. I had to astral project and even now I can feel something pulling me back. Paige needs medical attention and I don’t know what might be happening while I’m gone. You have to hurry.”
When Prue returned to her “body” such as it was, she heard noises from downstairs. Not needing to walk she moved downstairs and headed toward the conservatory. She was just in time to see Piper slammed into wall, head first. Prue flung her arm out, sending the woman into the wall.
The woman scrambled to her feet quickly, too quickly. “Ah, the missing sister. You think you’re so good. Well, what did my brother ever do to you?”
“Prue!” Phoebe exclaimed stunned. “How’d you . . ?”
“Not now,” Prue ordered. “Get out of here. One of you has to and you’re the only one still standing.”
“I can’t just leave you here,” Phoebe insisted as she ducked another flame.
“Listen to me!” the woman yelled at them. “Listen to me. You freaking witches! Listen to me. You really think I’m going to let you murderers get away? Even now my spell is closing down this house, none of you will escape.”
The slam of a door told Prue that either Leo had managed to find a way in or else the invasion of the SWAT team had begun.
The woman screamed at them in anger and flames spiraled away from her.
Prue grabbed Phoebe and pulled her over to where Piper and Paige lay in a heap. She held up an amulet that swung around her neck. She had intended to give it to Piper or Phoebe years ago. It had belonged to a witch that had been murdered. Phoebe hadn’t been speaking to Cole at the time and so he had shoved the amulet into Prue’s hand along with a white orb. He’d told her he needed the orb protected and that the necklace was the one he stolen from Leeza. Prue had been too stunned to respond.
She had died with it shoved in her pocket and she had been buried with it around her neck. Now, she held it up to protect her sisters. A blue shield went all around them and the fire past by them scorching everything in its path. She heard screams behind her and she shook. Innocents were dying and there was nothing she could do. The flames continued to separate around her and her sisters; the only thing protecting them was the amulet and the shield it created.
And then the flames were gone. The woman glared at Prue. “You know, you aren’t part of this. And you’re dead. Get out here and I won’t stop you. There’s still a little time before this house is completely closed off.”
“You don’t know me very well, if you think I’ll abandon my sisters,” Prue proclaimed.
“Your sisters killed my brother,” the woman announced shooting flames at the still conscious Phoebe who managed to duck.
“I didn’t know Zankou had a sister,” Phoebe commented as she looked for something to use as a weapon.
“What do I care about Zankou?” the woman retorted. “I mean my brother, the shadow who lived here.”
Phoebe froze and turned to look at her. “The Woogie was your brother?”
That was all she needed to send a flame careening at Phoebe. Phoebe didn’t notice it in time to do more than avoid getting hit somewhere deadly.
Leo walked into the room just as Phoebe fell to the ground. His mouth dropped. “Piper!”
“Leo! Behind me,” Prue called, keeping her eyes on the woman. She could see blood starting to pool under Phoebe’s leg and splinters making a line up her thigh in line with the tear in her clothes and the seemingly deep cut in her sister’s leg. Phoebe must have hit something on the way down. While there wasn’t anything in immediate evidence with Piper or Paige, both were still out cold.
Something had to be done and quick. Prue’s mind was working in over time, trying to come up with something she could do. She couldn’t call a whitelighter. Even had she had that ability, it seemed unlikely they would be able to come at this point. She couldn't get to any first aid materials. The possessed woman, for with the claim that the Woogie was her brother, she was convinced that the woman she was fighting was indeed possessed, would finish off her sisters before she could get anywhere. She had no way of transporting them anywhere and at this point she didn’t even think she could leave. There was no potion to use and everything seemed to tell her that she had to stay put.
That meant the only thing available to her was spells. She could use her powers as a ghost, but could she cast a spell? Unfortunately the only way to find out was to cast one and once she started doing that, the demon was going to react and there was no way to predict how.
A blast of fire came at her. She lifted the amulet in time to fend it off. That amulet wasn’t going to hold forever. How was she supposed to fend off a demon and protect her sisters at the same time, especially when she couldn’t kill the demon for fear of harming the host?
She looked down at her sisters. How she wanted Piper to make some sort of potion that would disconnect this demon from its host. Her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. Phoebe, why can’t you be awake. What is the spell for the Woogie? It was no good. Phoebe was out and she had to think, think hard. It had always been Phoebe who knew that spell. But hadn’t she seen Piper freeze the demon? And hadn’t she been unable to freeze the Woogie? Oh, who cared, it was a chance and the demon herself had claimed the connection. If it was true, hopefully this would work. And if it wasn’t at least she was trying something. How had it begun? “I am light.”
“What?” the demon looked at her befuddled. “What are you mumbling about?”
“I am one too strong to fight,” Prue pressed on.
“Are you kidding me?” she mocked. “This is just insulting.” She threw a stream of fire at Prue.
Prue used her eyes to redirect the flow of the flame. Behind her she heard Leo’s gasp.
He was on the ground, trying to do something for her sisters. He’d ripped a strip off his shirt and was wrapping it around Phoebe’s injured leg, trying to make a tourniquet.
“Return to dark where shadows dwell,” Prue continued. “You cannot have this Halliwell.”
“This is ridiculous,” the demon scowled. “I am better than this. And I don’t want you. I just want them.”
“Go away and leave my sight,” Prue chanted at her. Nothing seemed to be happening, but she wasn’t going to stop until she knew for sure. “And take with you this endless night.”
Nothing happened.
Or nothing, except the demon laughed at her. “Did you really think that would banish me?” She laughed. “Let me tell you a thing or two. I’m stronger than he was. I am better than he was. I won’t fall like he did. Leave them to me and I will allow both of you to leave.”
“Never!” Prue vowed. “You will not get my sisters.”
“Then, I’ll just wait,” she shrugged her shoulders. “There wounds appear to be damaging enough to kill eventually. Maybe they’ll get an infection. You can’t win.”
“No?” Prue queried, unknowingly mirroring Paige’s question earlier to Zankou. Loosing wasn’t an option, but until she found a way, she was going to have to find some way to stop her sisters from getting worse and the only option she had was a spell. She took one last look at her sisters and started chanting, hoping the words she was trying to form in her mind worked the way she wanted them to. “All around you time flies by. For you time says good-bye. Safe until time starts, again, protected from immortal men. Wounds do not with time progress. Breathing stops, lives regress. When it ends lives renew. All that stopped, begins anew.”