Charmed 1. The Halliwells

Disclaimer:Charmed and it's characters aren't mine,but wb's. Feedbacks and advices are welcome.

Prue had just taken one of the most important decisions of her life. Her grandmother had just died and she had just agreed to taking care of her sisters 'till they hadn't been of age,and ready to look after themselves,tough she was aware she would've always stood by them. She knew that this was a great responsability and she wasn't willing to screw it. So she sat on the couch and looked at what was left of were all young and hurt in their very own way. Piper was a shy and unpopular teenager,Phoebe was an irresponsible dark and twisty girl and Paige…Paige,though being barely 4, was a pale kid and very often sick. She still remembered when she had voiced her concerns about her baby sister's health to her grams,who had been very worried too and had decided to schedule appointments with several doctors in the next weeks. She knew now that her grams would never be able to attend those appointments,but she hoped she would still look out for them from up there. But she knew she couldn't keep just thinking,so she put her thoughts aside and hoisted herself up.

"Piper have you already done your homework?" "Yeah,if you want I could help you with dinner"

"Thanks"shouldn't have even asked,thought Prue with a smile. Phoebe stood up too and said:"Well I'm gonna be out of here in a couple of minutes,so don't worry about me,alright?"

"Phoebe I had strictly…"

"Blah blah blah blah,I know what you said Prudence,but I've somewhere to be,bye."

The younger middle child flew upstairs and left Prue to get mad at thin air,Piper went in the kitchen and Prue sat down again,this time on the floor and with her youngest sister,who was still playing with her toys as if sha hadn't heard the argument between Phoebe and Prue at all.

"Paige"

"Hey"

"Are you sad?"

"Why do you keep fighting?And why isn't grams ever coming back?" The eldest sister hugged the youngest and said: "Paige,grams is in a beautiful place,together with all the other people who loved us,we'll never be able to have her back,but someday we re all gonna be togheter again,alright?And if I fight with Phee it's because I m scared she might get hurt and I could never stand that,I could never bear the loss of any of you".Her little missy seemed to understand what she had said and hugged her back.

"Prue"

"Yeah?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"Everything you want"

"Promise me you'll never leave us,promise me you re always gonna be there for us"

"I promise,I' ll always be there" .

That night Phoebe managed to have her way and go out,Piper cooked as if their grams were still there,Paige killed them with their cuteness once again and Prue didn t worry about anything,if not about her teenage issues. They were on their own now,so she just had to learn how to deal with her new role,and she knew she would see. She would know the way,just like she thought she always had.


	2. Innocence

The day after,Prue dropped Piper and Phoebe off to school,then drove to the hospital together with Paige. To say the truth,she wasn't exactly thrilled about being at the hospital,which she had never liked,again,but she needed to know why her youngest sister would always be so sick. She opened the car door for her and grabbed her hand.A door was pointed out to them and the two were welcomed by a young and polite doctor.

"So Paige tell me a bit about yourself"

"OOk,hi I'm Paige and I'm old this much(she said while showing four fingers to her),and I like to sing and paint aand I'd like to help people someday"

"That's a very good thing,sweetie. I'm sure that whatever job you choose,you're going to be wonderful"

"Thanks"

"Alright honey,shall we see what we've here?" "Mmkay"

The woman run a few tests on her,like weighing her,taking her height and listening to her heart and she gave Paige a few toys and sent her to play a little bit further from them.

She turned to look at Prue and said:"you said that she gets sick very often,right?" "Yeah"

"Does she sweat too much or get short of breath a lot?"

"Sometimes she gets really hot and tells me that her heart hurts…aa-n-dd r..ight after our grams' death she passed out"

"Only once?"

"Twice"

"I might have to run a few more tests and I wouldn't want to alarm you,but Paige might have an heart or lung condition…excuse me for the question,but how did your grandmother die exactly?"

Prue chocked her tears back and said:"stroke…it was a stroke"

"Miss Halliwell,are you alright?"

"Should I be?My sister might be sick and I can't do anything about it.I've always tried to protect her,but it looks like I royally failed."

"No,don't say like that,you're just trying to do your best for your family and I'm sure that Paige's gonna love you always,for good and for at you Miss,you're raising three kids on your own,you 're her big sister after all,they all look up at you" "

"Prueee,is it over yet?".

Prue looked at Paige and tried to smile,while kneeing down to her level.

"Doc needs to run some more tests on you,sweetie,but as soon as we get out,I'll buy you the biggest ice cream you've ever seen,alright?.

Paige pouted a little bit,but then when she thought about her sister s idea,she beamed and hugged her,saying:"promise?".

"Pinkie swear"

* * *

When they left the hospital,Prue kept her promise and bought her ice cream. The eldest sister didn't know how this was gonna end up,but she wasn't willing to let normality slip through their fingers,she just didn't want to take normality away from her baby. Only because she might have a condition,whatever this condition could be,she wouldn't do that,not even if it meant spoiling her sisters more than she should've done.


	3. Help

It was a dark and stormy night in San Francisco. Rain was noisely pounding on the windows of the manor and the wind was whistling. The house was plunged into darkness and everybody was asleep except for Phoebe .She had planned to sneak out,but the rain had ruined her plans(at last for now) so she was gonna do something funny,something like trying to open the attic's door .Nobody had ever dared to open it because of their grams'warnings,but now their grams was dead and the rule wasn't so anymore and that's why she calmly climbed the steps bringing her to the attic and saw the door opening as if somebody had pushed it open,but the problem was that nobody was there .She came in and looked around,the place was neat and a pedestal was in the middle of the room .There was no book on the pedestal, so she took in the place once again and looked for the book 'till her eyes didn't fall on a big trunk .She forced it and saw the said book,lifted it up with some difficulty,since it was really heavy,and put it on the pedestal .The cover looked really old and dusty and there was a strange sign on it .Four circles intertwined and they were of a deep red .She opened the book and was surprised to discover that the contents were stories of her ancestors and odd riddles that sounded almost like spells. She read one to have some fun,then shut the book. It would have been nice to be a witch and to be able to do everything that the book said. She closed it and decided to give her escapade a second chance. The rain was much less and she still had many hours to have fun .She climbed out of the window, walked 'till the end of her block and there met her friends. Todd ,Rick and Ramona were all there,but there was a new face in the group . He was tall,black haired and looked to be around her age .She shook hands with him and as he said his name she felt a chill running down her spine "Cole","Phoebe" . This would've been an interesting night. Meanwhile at home Piper woke up and went to the master bathroom .To everybody it might have looked like she was dealing with the situation just fine,but they couldn't have been more wrong .She thought very lowly of herself .She wasn't beautiful,she wasn't famous,she wasn't clever...basically a ghost .She wanted to get this over with,so she grabbed the razor and brought it to her wrist .She wanted to do it,she really did,but whenever she tried something would stop her .She would always feel an hand touching her own and a voice telling her to drop the razor .However tonight everything was gonna be different,tonight she would do it and nothing would stop her .Phoebe,according to herself,was having a blast .Her body seemed to be detatched from her soul and her thoughts didn't seem to be coherent at all .Good old booze and drugs would always help her to deal with everything .Piper should've given them a try. And Cole guys...Cole was the best kisser she had ever seen and she was having fun...and that was good enough. Just like her two older sisters the youngest Halliwell wasn't doing well at all. The little child wouldn't stop turning around in her bed. Paige was feeling sick and she felt as if her little heart was exploding in her chest. She raised herself up and stumbled into her eldest sister's room. Prue felt her sheet being tugged and turned around. She turned her nightstand's lamp on and saw something she would've never wanted to see. A pale and breathless Paige was looking at her and her eyes were clearly begging for her help .Piper was still trying to muster up the courage to do what she had in her mind,when she heard a blood curling scream coming from the room she shared with Prue and the scream sounded a lot like her's,so she dropped the razor and run straight into her room. When she got there she found herself in front of an heartbreaking scene. Prue was sitting on the floor with her hands on Paige's face trying to get her breathing under control. "Hurry up Piper call 911". The older middle child run to get the telephone and called the 911,she explained the situation and was told that they would've come soon .Her sisters were both out of control now,so she tried to take the lead and when she found out,calmly tried to explain to Prue that Phoebe was nowhere to be found .Then she went downstairs,and trying not to panic she opened the door and waited for the paramedics .She wasn't gonna let this happen again.


	4. News and books

When Phoebe got home at 3.00 in the morning she didn't find anybody in the house .Paige wasn't snoring peacefully in her bed,Piper's overly cooked dinner for her wasn't there and no mad Prue had greeted her while sitting on a chair in the middle of the main hallway .The house looked normal and eerie at the same time looked for them anywhere without any good called the Trudeaus and they asked her to come to their house,so that they could've explained,but before she left the manor the telephone rang .It was Prue and her voice sounded broken,as if she had cried or were still doing so anyways."Phoebe,you're home finally" "What?Aren't you mad at me?" "I don't have the strength to be mad at you right now,Phoebe,we're at the hospital"."What?Why?Is it Paige?Piper?You?What happened?Is everything alright?" "It's Paige…she got very sick tonight,we don't know what's it yet .You know how I brought her to the hospital for some tests the other day?" "Yeah" "No…I can't explain everything to you on the phone just come here,we're at the Memorial".She was feeling as if the world had come crashing down on her. She was close to her older sisters,though sometimes she would fight with Prue,but Paige was her life savior and her only younger sister had never been the diligent girl of the family,she didn't like rules .Paige was the only one she would follow them for .So she run straight out of the house and quickly run to the hospital with her bycicle .When she got there,she frantically run into the main room and asked the woman at the desk for her sister .The woman pointed some chairs out to her and finally she managed to spot Piper .The two run into each other's arms and the older noticed that Phoebe had some questions to do right away. "Prue is in with her.I don't know what they're doing". "What's wrong with her?" Honey,I think you must sit down" "No,I'm not 5 years old and I don't wanna sit down" "I think that…" "No tell me what's wrong,now" .Right when Piper was about to tell her that the situation didn't look good at all,Prue came out of the room she had been in with her youngest sister up 'till that moment .They had never seen her so distraught,never seen her crying like that…or at all for that matter .She looked like she had aged 10 years in one night and her 18 years old eyes seemed to reflect just how much pain she was in."It's a chronical condition" "What is it?" "Car…it's dilated cardiomiopathy" The two younger sisters both sobbed at the news,but only Phoebe had the courage to ask what that meant."As I was saying it's a chronical c-c-co-condition of the heart caused by…a malformation,which can't be cured.B-but they say that there are some ways to keep it under control…pharmacs…and other things".Prue couldn't hold herself anymore and bursted,Piper and Phoebe did the same all over again and hugged her .They couldn't believe how cruel destiny had wanted to be to them and above all to Paige,an innocent child who would've never remembered her mother or father's face and whose grandma had just died .They couldn't believe to how serious her condition was .A lifelasting one that would've affected her lifestyle forever .None of them,for a matter of fact,would've ever forgotten the moment she was wheeled out and into her room She looked so little in that big bed .Her face was even paler and she had an oxygen mask on her face .They all helped the nurses to wheel the bed into the icu,then they were left alone. When the youngest Halliwell's eyes opened she saw that her sisters were all there and felt better right away . They all noticed she was awake and straightened their hold on her hand .Prue stroked her hair,then said:"Paige,baby,we're all here,everything's gonna be ok,soon we're gonna come back home."Phee" "Paigey,I'm here" "Why weren't…you home…tonight?" "I was out,I came back and didn't find you,so I got called by Prue and came here to be with you"."You're not gonna leave me right?" She gave her a peck on the cheek and said:"don't ever be scared of any of us leaving you,because we're not going anywhere,little one .I'm sure that someday you'll even beg us to leave" "What's to beg?" Piper answered to her question:"you do it when you pray somebody to do something". It seemed like Paige was satisfacted with the answer because she didn't ask anymore questions about that,nor asked them more about what had happened .She knew that with her big sisters by her side nothing would've happened to her and that was all she needed to know .In a matter of 10 minutes she fell asleep again,but not before her little hand touched Prue's,who got the hint and climbed on the bed .Phoebe went to sit on the other side with Piper and they all fell asleep by each other's side. Meanwhile in the underworld some demons were plotting against the charmed ones and since they were alone and were yet to find out that they had powers,they would've started to destroy them by giving them some mortal troubles .This way they would've been able to get an hold of the book of shadows and take their powers away from them,before they might learn how to master them .The source would've been proud of them and made them become even more powerful .They would've been feared by everybody,just like in the old good days.


	5. Attacks and discoveries

The demon Limerick shimmered into Halliwell Manor .It had been a day since Paige had been hospitalized and none of the sisters had actually come back home,which made everything a little bit easier. He performed a little spell which would've helped him to let everything go unnoticed then he formed two fireballs in his hands and threw them right into the kitchen,then he did the same with the living room 'till the courtains and all the oak forniture didn't catch fire, he shimmered upstairs and did the same. When his job was over he took off the spell,but didn't leave. It only was a couple of minutes before the neighboorhood noticed and all hell broke loose. They called the firemen but meanwhile tried to turn the fire off and everytime they tried Limerick would feed the fire with new fireballs. He kept going 'till he didn't get bored. He shimmered into the attic and walked to the pedestal,recited a few words in latin and reached for the book of shadows shing away from him let him touch his cover,so the demon quickly snatched it from his position and shimmered out leaving a trail of fire into the attic behind himself too.

* * *

At 17.00 circa Piper decided to make a quick run home. They were still gonna be in the hospital for a few days and they all needed some clothes and more comforts. She quickly drove to the Manor,but when she got there she saw lots of cars parked in front of her house and people who seemed to be looking at the house and the moment she got there she understood why. She quickly opened and shut her car door and tried to get through the crowd. A cop tried to stop her,but she didn't let him. "That's my house. Let go of me,that's my house".The police got the hint and let her go. She tore off the yellow tape and let herself in. The first floor was badly burned,but the fire had mostly interested the living room and the kitchen,while the conservatory had minor burns and the basement had luckily not been interested .She climbed the stairs and took a look at the second floor .Her and Prue's room was falling to pieces and her younger sister's was no better. She went in there and knelt on the floor. She scanned the place for him and felt lucky when her eyes found Slappy the clawn. She didn't even want to think about how her baby sister could've reacted if she had had to tell her that not only was her house half destroyed,but that Slappy,her favourite puppet had been lost in the fire too. So she grabbed the puppet and held it close to her chest. Then raised herself up and walked to the attic. It had always been locked,so she didn't think that it had been burnt somehow,but when she got there the attic was burnt exactly like the other rooms. She didn't know who had set fire to her house,but whoever had,had even managed to pick the attic's lock up,which was something they had only dreamed about doing. She decided to look for pictures and luckily found ot that the albums were all safe,the only pictures destroyed were those on the walls of the stairs(their grandma's last one and one of their mother's). Somebody touched her shoulder and she turned around startled,her hands up to her chest. She saw that it was a policeman and that he was a still. So waved an hand in front of his face,but he didn't move She frighteningly took a few steps back then tried to wave her hands again and the policeman unfroze. "Are you ok Miss?" "I'm fine.I must go warn my sisters now." "Miss you mustn't worry about your living arrangements,somebody has already provided to that." "Who?" "The Trudeaus" "Thanks for telling me".Knowing that Andy's parents had decided to give them a place to live in for now was great and it made her feel really grateful towards them. That way they would've had time to rearrange the house and fix what was what had happened up in the attic?Why had the man frozen?And why had she been the only one to unfreeze him?.She looked at her hands and they didn't seem to be any different,but when she executed the same movement trying to freeze a few more cops on the way out,they completely stopped moving. She unfroze them and quickly run into her car,speeding off towards the hospital.

* * *

Meanwhile Phoebe's mind was wandering. She was dreaming about burnt things and ugly faces,everything was foggy and there was no sound .Those things playing in her mind seemed to be part of an old movie.A bit like the scenes from "Kill it before it dies".The dreams came to an halt and she jolted up. Prue and Paige were still sleeping peacefully and Piper wasn't there. If she knew her well enough then she had probably gone home to fatch some clothes for them and for herself,so everything was fine.A few minutes later she felt like turning towards the door and when she did she saw Piper. "Hey,thought you had disappeared" "Yeah,but now I'm here" "Piper what's that face?" "Phoebe...somebody...somebody has set fire to our house" "Are you kidding me?If this is a joke then it's a really good one,but you may stop joking now." "It's true .Our rooms are gone and so is the kitchen .The living room is badly burnt and the attic..." "The attic?" "Do you know that somebody managed to unlock it?" "Piper"said Phoebe picking at her nails "Yes Phoebe...is there something you should tell me?" "Please Piper,believe me.I didn't do anything with the attic's door,it opened all alone" "The door opened by herself?" "Last night before I sneaked out I tried to open the attic's door again,but I didn't have to try hard,'cause it opened as if somebody had pushed it open from the inside,but there was nobody there." "Phoebe,has anything strange happened to you in the past few hours?" "Like what?" "Oh for God's sake I don't know,it's just that while I was at the manor a cop came behind me. I got scared and brought my hands to my chest,like this(she showed her the movement).And when I did the cop froze,as if somebody had stopped time" "I think I might have dreamed about the house going on fire,while it happened" "Did you?" "It looked like a vision. The night I entered the attic,I found a book talking about witches and spells and powers and all these witches seemed to be our ancestors.I mean don't you think that we might be..." "Don't you even go there" "Show me what you can do" "Alright" .Piper and Phoebe sneaked out into the hallway and looked for somebody. They finally found a target and Phoebe said:"freeze that man". Piper pointed her hands at the man and the man froze. " I can see things and you can freeze people,but what can Paige and Prue do?" "Well you're the one who read the book and made the mess,so you tell me" "...from what I can remember there's TK and an unknown power .When I read the book,I read that the charmed ones,that's what we should be called like,were supposed to be three at start,but some decades before we were born a clairvoyant had a vision .He saw a power that nobody had ever possessed and a child. He said that the child was meant to be a breed of his own,one of a kind I mean and strongly forbid, to do anything against the baby .He forbid Them to strip the baby of her powers and asked them to wait for the child to be older and choose between good and evil,but I have no idea about who Them might be." "That can only mean one thing Phoebe" "What?" "Connect the dots Phoebe. Prue is the telekinetic witch and Paige is the child of the prophecy .If we really are the charmed ones,Paige wasn't supposed to be born,but something happened,and mom who according to you is a witch too,broke the rules and so came our little Paigey. She beat somebody's rules in order to come to the world and now she's fighting like hell to be ok,she's a little fighter" "What are we gonna do about it?" "We'll tell them and see how they react,Paige we'll surely be thrilled and Prue won't take it so well at the beginning,but everything's gonna be ok,we're gonna figure this out Piper" "I hope so,I really hope so".


	6. Just try

When Prue and Paige finally awoke Piper and Phoebe decided to tell them about the few changes that had happened since when,some hours ago,they had fallen asleep."Prue I gotta tell you something and you too Paigey" "Don't tell me you're in trouble again Phoebe,'cause I still have to ground you for the other night". "Don't worry Prudence,there's nothing wrong about what we need to tell you" "We as in you and Piper?You managed to drag Piper into this?I can't believe it the world is really going to…" "Ah ah ah filter there's a child in the room" "Thanks Pipe" "Anytime Missy" "Ok so what's it that you need to tell us with so much insistence?" Piper said:" …what would you think if you suddenly found out that you're not exactly the average girls that everybody thinks you're?" "What does that mean?" "She means that we might be different than the others. The night I sneaked out and Paige got sick I found something in the attic" "The attic,but it has always been locked" "I know,but that night something happened.I happened to be in front of the attic,because I wanted to try pick the lock up,but the door opened all alone,as if somebody had opened it from the inside,the matter is that…there was nobody there and when I found the courage to come in,I found a book.A magical book about some women...and those women in the book were our ancestors...what I'd like to say is that we're witches." Their oldest and youngest sister's eyes widened and they didn't say anything,'till Paige didn't start jumping on her bed,screaming 'cool' 1000 times. They laughed and helped her back down while looking at Prue,who was unusually quiet. "Prue?" "…Do you wanna say that you included me in your little reading?Is this what you wanna say?" "Prue…just listen…" "No what the hell have you done?" Prue got really mad and left the room,so Piper run out after her,"Prue" "What Piper?What?" "Just listen to me" "No" "Prue somebody has set fire to our house" She really hadn't been able to come up with another excuse to stop her,so she told her the truth. Prue stopped dead in her tracks. "What are you talking about?" "The truth Prue,the truth is that I came back home to fetch some clothes before and I saw people in front of the Manor and it was because of this" "Do you have any idea of the gravity of the thing?I must go home,check things out. What's burnt?What's ok?Our rooms?What about mom's things?" "Prue,Prue everything's gonna be ok,just sit down.I've already checked on our things and our rooms are mostly gone,but we musn't worry about sleeping arrangements,the Trudeaus have decided to host us at their house 'till we won't fix things,mom's things are fine and so are grams'.Just do as I say,just sit down." "What's this story of us being witches?" "We're.I can prove you" She pointed her hands at a man and the man froze,Prue looked at her surprised and asked:"what about me,Phoebe and Paige?" "Phoebe can see the future,you have telekinesis and Paige's power is unknown,but from what Phoebe has read she might be the strongest witch that the wizarding world has ever known"."Paige?But she's so young". "I know,I just listened to Phoebe.I know you don't see everything the same way,you're both,let me tell you this,a little bit bullheaded,but…listen I'm scared too.I don't know where this is gonna bring me and being a witch wasn't exactly the job I was dreaming about,but this is our legacy,it's all we've left of the people who loved us,just maybe,we should embrace it." "You're really wise Piper" "Nahh,you're the wise one" "Piper,what are you saying?If you weren't here I wouldn't be who I'm,it doesn't matter if you're younger than me." Piper felt like she should've told her that she was nothing like her big sister painted her to be,but then she decided not to She didn't want to be a burden when they were having so many problems… That evening Paige was discharged,but they didn't come back home. They went straight to the Trudeaus. Prue and Piper felt nothing like showing their younger sisters the disaster that was the home they had grown up in. Andy's family welcomed them like daughters and they were given a room to sleep in all together It was something they hadn't done in a bit and sleeping on the same bed like when their grams was there made them feel safe. They just didn't want to let go of each other,ever. While the 4 sisters were sleeping,Limerick shimmered into the room and walked closer to their could've been no better time to kill them than now,so he created a fireball with his hand,but when he did so he noticed that the charmed ones simply weren't light sleepers and Prue being the oldest,felt the need to protect her younger sisters from that monster and jumped off the bed to knock him on the floor. She was quick enough to make it,but Limerick soon got rid of her and focused on the others. While turning the light on Phoebe said:"Piper try freezing him". She tried,but nothing happened and the demon reached out to get the three younger sisters who all did what Prue had done only a couple of minutes before and Phoebe went to take cover behind a plant trying to protect Paige. Paige didn't let herself be protected and jumped out of her hiding spot. She put herself between Limerick and Prue and when he was about to lounge at her,a strange white-blue light appeared in front of them,shielding them from his blows,like a force field The blow was returned to him 100 times worse. He was lifted in the air and started burning,going up on burned and burned 'till he didn't disappear and while he was he screamed "I'm not the only one you'll ever see,the faction of Zambor is gonna destroy you". As soon as he vanished,Paige's shield dropped and she fell to her knees. They all run by her side. She was breathless and sounded like the worst case of asthma in the world. Prue soon entered in her motherly-mode and started barking orders left and right. "Phoebe take her shirt off,Piper where are the ACE inhibitors?" "Bedside table" "Get them and fetch some water too."Phoebe helped her with Paige and Piper went to get all she had been asked too The house had oddly slept through the big commotion of before,but now it seemed like somebody else had been woken up by this new helped Prue up and laid Paige back on the bed Right there and then Piper came back with what they needed and Paige was finally given her all noticed right away the moment she started breathing normally again and finally calmed looked at Prue for an explanation and she didn't exitate to give him an answer. He said that he was glad that she had told him and that he was gonna wait for her as long as she wanted. **Zambor...** "Ladies and demons,Limerick has been destroyed,however before he went,he did something great for us". The demon talking showed everybody else the BOS and all the demons gasped. Having the BOS meant only one thing…having a way to destroy the charmed ones. "The next move is gonna be sending them a darklighter…" "Excuse me Master,but they don't have a whitelighter yet" "And so?He could still kill them with his arrows"Somebody else said:"I've heard that Limerick was killed by the youngest sister and she's four" "Yes,but they don't have lots of experience and we've demons who are more powerful than both Limerick and the charmed ones" "You don't know anything about the story,right ?" "The only thing I know is that they're really powerful and that if they learn how to use their powers,we'll be screwed." "Should I tell you what the matter is?The matter is that they are four when they should've been three and now we don't even know what powers the youngest might possess" "Please,please let's not raise our voices we're gonna fix this problem sooner than you think" You had better have the right answer Benjamin." When everybody left Benjamin was left to think about what he should do and he had a brilliant idea,something that would've involved the said to be lost Grimoire. **NEXT CHAPTER:Prue's gonna be royally pissed about everything and new changes are gonna affect our girls' lives.  
**


	7. Into the dark

Benjamin put the grimoire close to the book of shadows and started reciting a spell. The two books shook and soon merged into one and all the spells of the BOS were cancelled or became dark as those in the grimoire. The demon smirked and closed the book. Everything was going as it had been planned. Meanwhile the four sisters were sharing one of their bonding moments. They were calmly watching the tv and snuggling into each other. They were quickly getting used to living with Andy and his parents and were sure that a lucky strike would've soon hit them. Suddenly a black light appeared in front of them and the sisters all jumped up from the couch trying to get away from it. The light reavealed herself to be a man,dressed up in black and with a bow in his hands,Prue put herself between the man and her sisters as soon as he shot his first arrow,but she waved her hand at the arrow and the thing fell to the floor. The demon shot again and once again she waved it away. He run towards her and tackled her to the floor. Phoebe went to help her and tried to take the bow away from him but he kicked them both away and fired for the third time. The two arrows hit Piper and Paige straight in their stomachs and they both fell heavily to the floor;their wounds already bleeding. Phoebe threw herself at him again and managed to take an arrow from his quiver to embed it in his chest. The darklighter screamed and exploded in a thousand pieces and as Phoebe crawled to their sisters' side and tried to understand what they could do,Prue said:"we need to get these arrows out of them". Piper and Paige's faces were already starting to get pale and the latter was crying and trashing. "Phoebe,you help Piper,alright?" "ok,but how do I do it?" "you have to break the upper half and push the rest through" "isn't it gonna hurt a lot?" "I know but there's nothing else we can do to help them". Phoebe nodded and did as she had been told. Her older sister screamed but not as she would've really wanted to. She really didn't want to scare her baby sister who must have already been terrified. Prue leaned down to Paige's level and tried to whisper in her ear that everything was gonna be ok Phoebe held her down and Prue went to push the arrow through. "Shsh honey everything's gonna be ok.I'm gonna make you better soon alright?Phoebe hold her still". Through a lot of screams and tears,Prue managed to accomplish the hard task of taking it out and Phoebe went to fetch some gauzes and water. The eldest sister picked the youngest up and laid her on one of the couches,then with Phoebe's help she did the same with Piper and helped her onto the other. The rebellious sister asked her if they could switch places and so they did;and that was how they noticed that something was wrong with their baby sister. Their siblings were both evidently sick,but there was a slight difference between the two of them. The genie of the family seemed to be getting slightly better thanks to the water and the bandages,their joyful baby sister's temperature instead had raised to a worrying level,she was sweating as if she had run a marathon carrying an adult on her small shoulders and her wound was of an angry red and purple as if the skin around it were quickly bruising. "What the hell is happening to her?She's so sick". "I…I don't know,but we must do something. First let's try to cool her down again and if it doesn't work we'll try something different,get some ice cubs". One hour later the two sisters left standing were still trying to deal with the predicament they were in,but they were failing greatly. In the middle of the whole ruckus they had managed to put Piper to sleep,but they couldn't have said the same about Paige's situation. She had a 104° fever and she was being delirious,talking about nonsense: "sisters….sick sisters…Zambor's power is gonna grow…". Prue frowned and kept wetting her head and body with ice. "What if the arrows had been poisoned?" "Poisoned?" "Yeah that must be why she must be feeling like this" "Yes,but Piper was hit too and she's not having the same symptoms". "What do we do then?". Right when Prue was about to answer the two were knocked out by someone.A blonde young man made his way to the couches and imposed his hands on Paige's stomach which was healed right away. He raised himself up and kneed besides Piper. While he was healing her,however,he saw she was waking up and was overcome by an odd feeling. He didn't try to knock her back out,instead he let her brown chocolate eyes open and look straight into his. His hands forgotten on her lap. "Go back to sleep" "Are you an angel?" "Sort of". After he answered Leo helped her back down and said: "what's your name? "Piper. Nice to meet you" "I'm Leo" "It's…a…nice n-name" "Go back to sleep". Piper nodded and went back to sleep. The angel instead gave one last look at them and orbed out.


	8. There's an angel

After the attack from the darklighter they decided to pay more attention to things appearing into the house,but they didn't manage to understand who had knocked them out or healed Piper and Paige. Prue was glad about it,but she spent days hovering over her sisters thinking it was a joke,then things finally came back to be normal. The Trudeaus hadn't noticed anything and she was glad about being in Andy's same house. She loved her man and she would've done anything to show him just how much she did. It was what she was thinking when when she drove her sisters to school just like every morning.

Phoebe walked to her locker and opened it. She was no fan of school and she would always do anything to skip it. Soon she was reached by her friends and they decided to play one of their stunts on their school like usual. They were just meant to cause some trouble to the jocks and cheerleaders and the were about to go,when she went crashing against somebody. She fell to the floor and when she saw the hand of a boy reaching out to her to help her up,she accepted it without having any second thought. The moment she looked in his eyes the world stopped turning. He had blonde light hair and blue piercing eyes. He was tall,very good looking and looked like an average student(he wasn't either a nerd or a jock).He attracted her,just like Cole did,but for a whole different reason. They were polar opposites. He looked like somebody who could've never stolen or smoken;which were things which Phoebe would do a lot.

"Jason"

"Enchanted"

"Wow. It's a nice name"

"Oh no,I'm Phoebe... aaand these are my friends"

"Hi" said Jason,nodding towards them. They did the same,then left with Phoebe half-running after them. They were different and she knew that,but she would've given anything to be like him. Problem was...she had been born a screw up and she was glad to be with somebody who was just like her. Cole seemed to be perfect for her and she was looking forward to him asking her out. Jason instead was meant to be somebody else's and she would've never gotten to be with him or like him,but for the rest of the day she couldn't stop thinking about those blue sky piercing eyes.

Piper managed to get back home sooner that morning and as soon as she did so she headed towards the bathroom. She couldn't stand the bullying anymore and she had already made her mind up. She couldn't stand the name calling and the aggressions anymore and she was gonna get this over with. However it seemed like everytime she tried to do that,somebody or something would stop her and that time it was no different. When she looked up,in fact,she noticed somebody else was standing in the room right in front of her,so she dropped the razor in fear and stepped away from him.

"Who are you?"

He seemed to be sorry for having scared her and he was even repriminding himself for being so stupid and letting one of his protegees see him,but he was deeply attracted to her and he couldn't deny it.

"I thought what you're doing was wrong,so I decided to stop you"

"How would you know it?You don't know what's like"

"You're right,I don't...but I can't let your life go to waste..."

"Wait up...I remember you"

His eyes widened with surprise and fear for having been caught at the same time as he waited for Piper to remember him.

"You saved me.I was hurt and you saved me. What are you?Are you even real?"

She took a step forth almost to check out if he was true and he did the same because he wanted to help her with it,so he decided to play along with her and see if there was a way to not let his true identity slip out to Piper.

"I'll be whatever you want me to be"

"Are you an angel?Because there would be no other way to explain why you keep saving me and how you can get in my house whenever you want to."

She laughed a little bit and he felt his heart fluttering as he heard it. It was the most beautiful and melodious laughter he had ever heard in his whole life/non-life and he had caused it...he had made her laugh and forget about what she was about to do.

"I told you you could make me whatever you wanted me to be,so yes I'm an angel"

"Are you only mine?"

"I'm yours and all those people's you love"

They smiled at each other again.


	9. Of temp jobs,powers and new mysteries

As Prue got to the temp job she had found herself she thought back about all the things they were supposed to do. Throughout the last days she and Piper had busied themselves with trying to find the money to fix the manor up,and after having declined the polite offer of the Trudeaus had given fund to their grandma's emergency fund,finding enough money to pay for the whole house,but Prue had decided to look for a job just in case,she knew that raising up 3 kids wasn't exactly easy,above all when there was also magic in the middle. They had found out that what had attacked them was a darklighter according to the fast reading Phoebe had given the book before all the mess of the fire happened,and it was no good that it seemed to have vanished into thin air,mostly destroyed by the fire. Sometimes Prue would've just liked to sit down and cry,after all she wasn't the exact age to be a mommy,nor did she think to be capable of training herself and her sisters as witches. Sitting down to her desk she realized she was getting bored so decided to give a try to her newly found powers tried to move her hand,move things in any way but nothing happened. At first she felt happy,thinking it had just been a nightmare,but then she realized she was feeling as if she had lost a part of herself,she couldn't feel the power anymore. Quickly she dialed Piper cellphone number and waited for her to answer. Soon she heard her younger sister's voice on the other side and started ranting. Piper managed to turn her off for a little bit,and Prue finally explained herself. Piper didn't have her powers either,and they were starting to suppose that if they had "lost"theirs then so had Phoebe and Paige.

"This doesn't feel right at all,bet there's something evil in the middle. Tell you what,Piper,I'm coming back home okay?We need to find out what happened!"

She had said she didn't like to be a witch,not that she wouldn't have tried to solve their witchy issues. She was aware of Phoebe and Paige having been happy about it,but she knew it was no walk in the park,and if them having no power was a bad thing then she needed to fix it. They were in now,and they were supposed to play it out. Prue was not a whimp,she would've not given up.

* * *

Half an hour later all the sisters gathered into their room to talk about what had happened. They had some ideas but so far they hadn't come up with any explanation as to why they had suddenly lost the power.

"Maybe it's about the book?"suggested a thoughtful Phoebe.

"Yes but it was burnt in the fire"

"What if it hadn't been destroyed"

"What'sa the book?"

"It's the book through which we received our powers honey"answered Piper

"oky"

"Phoebe would you just pay attention to Paige for a minute?"

"But Prueee"

"No buts we're doing this,but we're gonna do this my own terms and condictions"Phoebe pouted but said nothing more,turning back to look at Paige"

"What's they're doin'"

"Adult talks. No biggie,quite boring"

Paige shrugged,smiled and jumped over her,making her fall on the small couch the room had been provided with. Phoebe laughed and started tickling her. Meanwhile the two big sisters looked at them worriedly. They didn't know anything about magic,they had to solve a magical problem,and Paige and Phoebe were just so young. They wanted to keep them out of it,but something was suggesting them it wouldn't have been so easy.

Suddenly they all felt as if something were ripping their bodies off the room and they were all gone.

**Hello guys this is thetimeinbetween all over again. I deeply,deeply apologize for the one year hiatus,and for not being able to update. However I'm here again to keep this baby going,so stay tuned for new updates,and we'll see each other soon. xoxo Thetimeinbetween**


	10. The land of peace

When the girls woke up it was in a white room. Everything from the pavement to the ceiling was completely pavement was pure cold marble,but the place seemed to be just so peaceful. Prue was the first one to wake up,and noticed that they were being surrounded by old people dressed up in white robes,who looked like they wanted to talk to them. The oldest sister rushed up and quickly woke up the other three,who were as surprised. Piper was looking around herself scared,Phoebe seemed to be wooed by the place,while Paige who had been sitting on the floor just a few minutes before,raised herself up and run to them,being curious about who they were and feeling confident in a place which she felt like knowing,nonetheless she had actually never visited it before. The other three soon walked by her side and Prue spoke up.

"Who are you people?What do you want from us"she said,as she moved Paige behind her body to protect her just in case.

"We mean no threat to you Prudence".

She was peeved by the use of her full name,as she preferred to be called Prue,but was actually interested in knowing what all these grandpas had to say.

"Who are you?I won't repeat it you are a threat to us,then know I'll fight you back."

"We are,as everybody calls us,the Elders"

"What's an Elder?"asked Phoebe.

"We rapresent the purest good,the exact countrary to demons,everything that's evil. We send down on earth our whitelighters,to take care of the witches and guide them through the path of the fight against evil. You must have already met Leo."

"Yeah and he is our guardian angel,isn't he?"said Piper as she felt a little bit more confident around those "people".

"Well,you weren't supposed to know it,but I guess We see no evil in letting you know,now we'd like to inform you about your powers,we wouldn't have expected demons to do such a thing,nor so soon. It hasn't happened in a long time,and this is even worse because you're the Charmed Ones. And what about the little one?"

"What do you want?"

"We'd like to speak to your sister Prudence,I hope you'll let us talk to her as we didn't threaten you at all"

Paige came out of her hiding place behind her oldest sister's legs and reached out to them again. A woman crouched down besides her and started talking to her.

"Hi Paige,I'm Sandra"

"Hello"said the young kid as she shoke her hand to wave at the woman.

"Paige,I saw you have some special powers,you defeated a monster. You must be proud of yourself"

"Yup"

"Do you know who are your parents?"

Paige shrugged,as Prue became angry.

"What?What reason do you have to make her such a question?Must I remind you they were gone long before Paige could even talk. What memory should she have of them?"

The elder woman didn't answer to her,but neither looked at her in anger. She knew why Prue was the way she was,and that she truly hadn't meant to be disrespectful towards her,but just protect her baby sister.

Meanwhile Paige shook her head,pouting.

"I'm sorry,but I can't remember them,cos' they are angels now. Is this paradise?"

Sandra laughed at Paige's statement.

"Would you believe me if I told you we aren't so far?"

Paige's eyes widened in wonder,and so did her mouth and she started skipping up and down screaming that she wanted to see it all,because it looked totally cool.

The elder turned to look at the others and started engaging a strange conversation with them. They would've liked to understand what they were saying,but they seemed to be talking in a sort of ancient and indecipherable language,lots of clock-clocks and inchoerent sounds. To them instead the conversation was worth gold. The Elders knew Paige was fated to make great things once she had been old enough to fight without the guidance of people who were more experienced,or even her own sisters once they had learned;but some of them still had troubles with accepting that she was an half-breed and that for the first time somebody had fooled them,and deceived their rules,and there were some who thought she could only mean trouble,but Sandra like those who were on her side was getting a very good vibe out of the child. So much innocence and power together. And yet the elder had no doubts that she would've made a fine witch,whitelighter,whatever she had chosen to be someday. Still smiling,she ruffled her hair and played with her chubby cheeks,making her laugh. Then looked up at her sisters,and wore her serious face again,they needed to talk about the matter at hands,but she also promised Paige she would've soon made her visit as much of the Elderland as she was allowed to. With the tail of her eye,she saw as Prue grabbed Paige's little,as chubby hand and heard her asking for a lollipop to her older sister,who promised she would've soon gotten one if she had behaved. To her it seemed as if they were just sending four young girls to the slaughter. Prue was still attending senior year and was trying to raise up her three sisters. Piper was shy,and had poor self-confidence. Phoebe was a storm,stubborn and too much impulsive,and Paige had just ended being a toddler the other day. All too young to see so many horrible things. They were too young for such a big burden,but there was no turning back. With the death of Penny the world of magic had come to meet the Charmed Ones,and sooner or later they would've had to fight. The prophecy had come true,and they had no other choice if they didn't want to lose the world to the evil forces.


	11. Some answers to our questions

The four sisters were guided through a long hallway,then came to an halt in front of a tall,mahogany door which two elders opened for them. It looked like a tribunal room,except for the fact that there were not many things to sit down on. They all went to sit down in front of them and started talking about the whole situation.

"My trustworthy companions,we have called up the Charmed ones here,today,to talk about the dire situation we are into. It has come to my attention that there's a group of demons around who would like to revive the ancient magical city of Zambor(some of the elders who had no knowledge of that gasped). As you may already know,that city has been an incredible source of trouble in the past,and we are now called to restore the balance between good and evil,beforeit might be too late. Or else darkness is gonna take over the earth and never leave again and evil will have won once and for all. We've just discovered that the Charmed Ones have been deprived of their powers and we can't efford such a thing right now. This is why we're gonna provide them with copies of their powers for as long as they will need them,'till when they will not have recovered their own. On the other side we are also aware of the fact that our Paige down here is still in possession of her whitelighter ones and that she must learn to master them. As far as her powers of witch are concerne,they are klinked to the book too,but I myself trust in the fact that being the child of the prophecyshe s gonna find all the power she needs by connecting with the earth".

All the sisters had followed the speech of the elder and were now a little bit more aware about what was going on,but once again Prue spoke up,anyways. Once again panic had suddenly overtaken.

"Excuse me. I get everything you say,but I'm still surprised...what are we supposed to do?We know nothing about magic,not even the basics. Are you the ones who are gonna train us?How long for?We've got lives down there going. Won't people make some questions?How does it work up here? And what about my sisters,they are so young,and it looks as if you were condemning us to see a place which looks kind of like hell..."

She would've ket going,but her second rant of the day was halted,this time by the woman who had introduced herself as Sandra when they had arrived.

"Sit tight Prudence,what you're gonna do at first is being trained to fight,but since you can't stay here with us for too long,there's gonna be somebody else helping you at first. For exemple your whitelighter,Leo,you'll be allowed to see us from time to time,and soon enough when the time comes you'll be seeing somebody else too. Everything is gonna happen when the time comes for it too. If they want the Zambor back they are gonna have to start out with sacrifices. Prue and Piper felt like covering their younger sisters'ears. Sandra kind of understood.

"They are gonna have to sacrifice 5 witches,so there are 5 witches for 5 demons,they hold your powers but since they didn't take them straight from you they won't be able to use them,rather they are gonna put them aside and use their own book. You must find out where is your own book of shadows. If they gather other five from pretty powerful witches and convert them they'll be restoring the evil of all evil. They will have created a monster. A god. You're gonna have to find out where this witches are,and fix it."

"How so?We are gonna have to travel,won't we?said a stunned Piper.

"One of the perks of having a whitelighter is that you are soon gonna find out how to travel easily and quickly".

Suddenly the room was filled with white-blue ligths and Leo appeared in front of them.

"Paige can do that too...so it's sure..she is a whitelighter..but since she is...wouldn't she be kind of half dead?"said slapped her head as her young sister responded with an "ouch".

"Am I?"said little Paige worriedly.

Sandra laughed again and gave them the answer they needed:"No,not at all,Paige is pretty much alive,it just means that when someday many years from now I wanna hope,she will have the chance to choose between keep on helping people in danger or finally reaching a better place. Your sister is very special and I also wanna hope that someday all the elders they don't believe as I do,will. Now go,and save this world. This is only the beginning."

Sandra went to join a bigger group of elders and together they started chanting in latin.

"Potentiam ad potentiam. Experientia ad experientia. Poter magna veteres invocamus ad nos."*

Four balls of light came out of their raised hands and embedded into the four girls'bodies,then the lights died down as their hands sparkled with power.

"You've now been given an exact replica to your powers,but if you lose these too,you'll be at the mercy of demons. Some of your ancestors agreed to lending you their powers. Prudence,you were given the powers of your grandmother,I trust you'll make a responsible use out of it. Piper,all that is happening is just gonna make you stronger make your mother proud. Phoebe it's such an honour to have the same power as the granddaughter of your oldest ancestor. I'm sure you're gonna master the gift you were given and help your sisters with all your strength. And Paige(at that point Sandra crouched down to look her in the eyes),the true core of your family joined us today to make an exact replica of your powers,your oldest ancestor,but we trust you'll know how to make a just use out of them and guide us towards an era of peace,together with your sisters.

The four sisters smiled now knowing there was nothing to fear from them and Leo who had been there the whole time just watching,actually walked by their side and grabbed Piper's hand,inviting the other three to make the same,or hold onto each other. They were getting ready to orb for the first time in their witchy lives.

*"Power to power. Experience to experience. We invoke the power of the great ancestors to us"

**Hey guys,here we are again with a brand new chapter. Excuse me for my rusty latin,but it has been a bit since the last time I traslated anything from latin to english and viceversa,so I just tried. Anyways I hope you enjoy and see you soon. XOXOThetimeinbetween.**


	12. Symbols

When the girls came back home it was evident that something had changed. Morning was not morning anymore,it was already dinner time and the Trudeaus had been looking for them. Prue,justified all her sisters by saying she had gone to get them all from school,and they had stayed out for a little bit,just to spend some time together. They had lost time c,and they had ended up being late for dinner. Luckily the Trudeaus seemed to believe them,and Andy,who already knew something about what was going on,had no problem with that at all. Truth to be told he was a little bit afraid,he didn't exactly know how it worked out,but he was willing to try,for the sake of the woman he still loved. As dinner was over,Mr Trudeau left the house for work,while Mrs Trudeau went upstairs to take care of some things. All the kids instead were left watching tv and as it was a friday Phoebe and Paige were allowed to stay a little bit longer. When all the interesting things were over Andy and Prue hugged each other good night while Prue and Piper gave their little sisters a piggy ride straight to bed. Then they sat cross-legged on Piper's bed and started talking about the serious matter at hand. But before they could even get to the point they saw white lights showering the room,and Leo appeared again,smiling.

"I felt you were needing my help,here I'm"

"We'll be frank,we know nothing about where to start from."

"That's what I'm here for. Look,I brought you a map of San Francisco and a globe. You had some at home too,but you'll realize that..."

The two girls looked awry at him.

"Well I didn't mean to say that,I'm sorry"

Piper laughed and said:"no problem at all,we get you didn't mean to. So a map and a globe,what would we need them for?"

"Scrying"

"Meaning?"

"If you wanna look for any witch or a demon in the future you're gonna have to scry. But in order to do so you're gonna need something of those you're looking for. You may use it to find each other too,and that's gonna be easier,anyways since you're gonna get attacked by them sometime soon,you're gonna have to go by that,we can't know where they are going to attack,but the elders gave me a couple of informations about all the brotherhoods of the underworld,but there are not as many about Zambor. Last but not last,you don't hold a book of shadows right about now,so I'd advice you to make some field experience,gather up some information from other witches,I know of a couple who might help you."

"Wow,wow,overloading,just slow down"

"Yeah right,sorry,too many things at the same time"

"Don't worry Leo we got it,and thanks for your help,think you could pheraps come back tomorrow?"added Prue.

"Fine,we'll see each other tomorrow"he smiled at them,and let his eyes linger on the oldest middlechild.

"Ok,Leo,you may go now,thank you a lot again"

"Yes of course,bye"

Leo left,and Prue bursted into laughters,making fun of Piper.

"So little Piper has found herself a girlfriend"

"What?"Piper pushed Prue "He's not my boyfriend"

"Piper got a boyfriend,Piper got a boyfriend"

"Oh shush will you,don't wake the little squirts up"

As if she had asked them to wake up,Paige and Phoebe's eyes opened and the two started jumping on their beds,screaming Prue's same thing and hitting them with their own pillows. Between laughters and plumes,they almost managed to forget that their lives had changed forever. Just for one night,they felt like four normal sisters again.

* * *

The day after Leo came to get them soon in the morning,and orbed them to a place they had never seen. It was quite big,it had long hallyways and rooms,ending with one huge library,containing so many books. It was something they would've never thought to see. Leo had called it "magic school". Everybody was left surprised and Leo didn't oblidge. It was wonderful indeed.

"Here you're gonna find lots of informations about demons,here I hold the informations about all the brotherhoods going in the underworld. You're gonna have to analyze them all,and the books are going to be useful,they're even older than most books of shadows nowadays."Leo started orbing several books on the table they were sitting at. There's everything:demons,ghosts,nightmares,succubus,other kinds of monsters,possessions,good beings,like gnomes,fairies,witches,good ones clearly..."

All of them looked at them with their eyes widened and mouths agape. Leo stopped to look at them with his mouth still open.

"Ooook then,where should we start from."

"The list,I'd say. If we are supposed to find this brotherhood,we must study them all"

"Ok let's do it."

Piper and Prue took it upon themselves to read the list,Leo helped them as he gave them the informations he knew. Then they started analyzing the books,even letting Phoebe read some and explain them to Paige,usually the littlest and easier to understand. Meanwhile Leo was called Up there and had to leave.

* * *

"Leo,what a pleasure,we've seen the good job you're making. Take care of them,be careful,demons are soon gonna come for them."

"I'm gonna do everything that it takes,Sandra."

* * *

"Look Piper,no fantasy at all. The brotherhood of Zambor,it was founded around the 1800's,by a group of demons who wished to control the underworld,hell. They needed to do exactly what the elders told us,but they have always acted out all by themselves. They never really tried,not up till now. Odd,what were they waiting for,those witches have been possessing their books of shadows for years. What would we have to do with it?"said Prue as all her sisters gathered around her.

"Maybe it's because we're the Charmed Ones,I mean from what I have come to realize we're pretty famous,so everybody would be at our throats. Maybe they found out we were supposed to be involved too and they thought the charmed ones would've come pretty soon. A sort of fight between evil people,they're at each other's throats too."

"Do they have some sort of symbol to go by?"

Prue and Piper shrugged.

"I gots it,it's a book 'bout symbols. Prueeeeeeee I doesn't understand anything,I can't read yet."

Prue stood back on her feet and picked up little Paige

"I know little one,we can read it all together,so you'll understand too"

The oldest sister sat down with her baby sister on her knees and they decided to go over that book together,always hoping they wouldn't have had to read any other,as they had been analyzing for a very long time. In fact in a few minutes they ended up falling asleep,books still open,and some information more to use in this first journey through the magical world.


	13. Threat

The girls were back at home still trying to get to the symbol of the brotherhood. They had borrowed several books,so that they could've studied them. Their morning had been pretty fine,so when the Trudeaus had left for an important dinner and Andy had actually gone to the police station for a couple of exams which could've been important as he wanted to be a policeman,the girls were left home alone once again. To anybody else living in San Fran this could've almost looked like a boring day,except for the fact that a demon had decided to shimmer right in the middle of the house,and attack them. Prue had just the time to raise her eyes from the book she was reading,that a fireball flew right besides her,missing her of a few inches. She raised herself up and called for her sisters. They came running into the room and Paige put up her barrier to protect them.

"What are we gonna do?"

"Let's go,we're not getting out of here without having defeated him,let's just buy ourselves some time,shall we?"

The others nodded,and they flew upstairs,taking the stairs two steps per time.

"Ok,so,what have we read?What do witches do?We make spells,we make potions. We don't know how to work a potion out,but we can come up with a spell."

Before they could've come up with anything a voice whispered in their ears.

"The Power of Four"

"Have you heard that too?"

"It was a voice,it sounded like grams"

They heard sounds from the stairs and feet coming their way.

"Believe in the power of four"

"I'm gonna kill you all"

"Did you hear it again?said Piper

"Wait up,the power of four,we must use it in a spell. Like come up with a spell which includes the power of four."exclaimed Phoebe.

They all tried to rack through their brains trying to find a the right spell.

"I got it. The power of four,stands stronger than before"said Phoebe as she came up with her very first spell.

All the girls run back towards him,and grabbed each other's hands,starting to repeat the spell which had just been invented in the heat of the moment. The demon started screaming,as he quickly took fire,and started screaming like the first one they had met and the darklighter. They would've all expected him to go without saying a thing,but before leaving he gave them a clear warning.

"You're done for,you might have powers,but we're gonna destroy you"

At the very last moment Prue noticed he was wearing a strange symble to his arm. It looked like a upside pentacle,surrounded by it's usual cyrcle and it was read. It could have been any other symble,but she being careful enough,knew that it had to have something to do with the brotherhood. There would've been other demons coming their way,but there were thousands and thousands of demons,even more only in San Fran,and she was willing to bet there were very few wearing symbles,and as she had read there weren't many brotherhoods,the list hadn't been that long,so she was interested in finding out if that was the symble of the brotherhood of Zambor. Quickly she asked Piper to halt time. She made it,and it was enough for her to run straight to the kitchen and get a knife to cut it off of him,remembering what they had been told about scrying. Then time started flowing again and he was gone,in the blink of an eye. But they were all left with new hints about what they were looking for. They needed to get down to research and they needed to do it,as soon as they could,and before something bad could happen to somebody else.


	14. A knife twisted into an open wound

The girls spent the rest of the day studying the sign,and luckily they found out that this was exactly what they were looking for. It corresponded to what they had been told by the elders. The pentacle would've rapresented the 5 witches,and the cyrcle was there,maybe having something to do with them. They now needed to find where the other demons were,then they would've taken their first step into the true battle,which had been started by those crazy demons out there. She could see her worries growing everyday,but she still held onto hope. Things were going fine with the reparation of the house,the lower floor seemed to be on the verge to be finished and they had even managed to recover a couple of the things which were an important part of their lives. They hadn't tried to get to the attic,but thankfully Leo seemed to have recovered what he had been able to and he had promised they would've soon been given those things back. Meanwhile saturday and sunday had gone by and scrying had brought them to nothing. Leo had reassured them saying that maybe they were not on the earth and that was why they hadn't found them yet. So there had also been no more attacks since friday. Meanwhile monday was passing by fine for Prue. She had been let out of school early and had even had the time for a little friendly date with Andy, Phoebe had called up saying she would've stayed out just a little bit more,and Paige was home with her and Andy. Piper would've been back soon.

* * *

Phoebe was a good girl,really. She was quite incapable of having ill feelings for anyone,and it was rare for her to do these things,but lately,right after the death of her grandmother she had been feeling quite lost. She was so glad about having found out to be a witch. It was like having some part of her mother and grams there again,it was almost knowing them better than she truly had. And yet she couldn't seem todrop the little habits she had picked up lately. She didn't want to have them. Shop lifting and smoking,even drinking sometimes. For God's sake she wasn't even of age. Moreover she wanted to be a witch because she felt as if she were slipping into a winding road. It would almost have felt better to be constantly bullied like Piper,or have any other kind of problem. Prue was trying so hard to raise them up,and she could understand if sometimes she would be away for too long. Being witches had allowed them to not only be even closer than usual,but see her more. They were so busy that Prue wasn't even caring about her part-time job anymore. Hence she would surely soon be fired. It didn't feel right that she would be the only one to work hard,and through shoplifting she could've surely earned something too. Knowing the mall by memory,every evening she would go there with some of her friends and do the job. Easy and quick money. It couldn't have been otherwhise.

* * *

Prue had been scrying for a good ten minutes,but had obtained nothing,the thing wouldn't just drop. She was about to raise herself up and just send the whole thing graciously to hell,when suddenly the scrying stonenfell on the globe sitting on the table.

"Bingo"

She smiled and laid down on the chair,then looked at the globe,being curious about where it might have fallen,but she was left mouth agape.

* * *

Once again Piper found herself sitting alone out of school. Her last hour had just ended and she was supposed to come back home for lunch and yet she couldn't find the will to. It was not she didn't love being at home,even if it wasn't the Manor,but once again she was ashamed about being the main victim of all the stupid pranks of the jocks and cheerleaders and the wrongest thing was that Prue knew nothing about it. You'd think she could've noticed,but she hadn't and that was because they were very good at playing their pranks out. They would mostly come to her when her big sister wasn't at school,or was somewhere else completely. Sometimes it would all be about making her drop her books,stealing her glasses or hiding her things. But the worst thing was that nobody was truly her friend,even the others like her would usually avoid her. She would've liked to tell Prue everything,since she was the captain of the cheerleaders,and everytime she was about to say it she would just take a step back and think about how Prue was busy with raising them up,and making sure to keep them all together and didn't need to be burdened with her problems too.

* * *

Prue had been left surprised by the destination and wanted to reveal it to the others,but she would've had to wait for Phoebe,so meanwhile she decided she decided to go get Piper from school,taking Paige with herself. Things finally seemed to look up for them.


	15. Going,going,gone

Once the girls got back home,Prue decided to reveal them what she had found out and that the place was a little bit further than they had imagined. They were all left surprised to find out it was France. Excited they realized they had found the demon,and maybe the witch coming with him and called for Leo. Sure enough he came to them right away,and was happy about hearing what they had found out. He grabbed their hands and they all orbed away from the Trudeaus'house.

* * *

Paris,23.00,Montmatre

The four girls and whitelighter safely landed on the road of one of the beautiful neighborhoods of Paris. The houses,the colours,the whole city was magical at night. Even if they were not from France they could've said that Paris was one witchy,magical city.

"How do we find this witch?"

"The lost witch spell,simple"exclaimed Leo.

"Hello Leo we don't have a book anymore, the three of us(and she pointed herself,Piper,and Paige)didn't even have the time to look through it,if you haven't noticed the only one who read it is the one who actually put us in this mess"

"What?I was curious,it's part of our heritage,won't you get it?"

"Well I kind of don't,will you explain it to me if you can?"

"Stop,everybody stop,we are not here to fight,cut it off,we already have enough problems as it is"screamed Piper and everybody just shut up. The middle sister wouldn't usually scream,but whenever she did it was just better to shut up and Prue and Phoebe had at least the decency to be ashamed after their little fight. They both knew they wouldn't have solved anything by fighting,they were supposed to do this together.

As the fight ended Leo recited them the spell,but since they had no potion material they opted for a slightly changed version of the spell,and reversed it in order to be taken to the witch's house,since they didn't know her. They recited it themselves and a sort of breeze enclosed them,making them disappear from the luckily desert road they had orbed into.

* * *

When the girls and Leo got there it was clear that something was wrong. The whole house looked broken. Living room was upside down,and they all decided to part ways to check the whole place out. Once reunited they realized that something had to have happened. Leo encouraged them to take a look around once again,hoping to hear from them that nothing had been taken,nothing like this witch's book of shadows or something needed for the ritual of Zambor,but he was clearly wrong,because when they came back to him,they said they hadn't found anything,even if they had looked for it in every space it could've been hidden by that woman nonetheless the light being too poor. Leo decided to give some light to the room and used his powers,but when he turned the living room on,he understood that it was too late for everything. The witch had clearly been killed and the book stolen by the brotherhood. There was blood all around,even on the things on the floor,but there was no body. It was odd,but the blood was the confirmation that they had been too late and he hurt for the woman who had been killed. It was clear that she had tried to fight with all her might,but she hadn't made it. Meanwhile the girls were standing mouths open wide looking at the stains and Piper just left the room,followed by the whitelighter. Prue hugged Paige and Phoebe to her body and held them tight,asking them to close their eyes and quickly guiding them out of the room,before they could see any more. The darkness they had met at the beginning had almost melted the stains to their eyes and they hadn't noticed,but when the lights had been turned on...it had become such a nightmare. Leo had them leaving the house,and came back in to check out one last time if something else had been taken,just wanting to convince himself that nothing had happened. But then again something had indeed happened,and even if the lights had been turned on they wouldn't have found a thing,nor the book,nor what was missing from the wall in the woman's house's attic. It looked as if something,like a fireball,had destroyed part of the wall and something were missing from the centre of the broken part. It looked like the part of a star. He frowned but then realized:those parts were important for the ritual of the brotherhood,they had to rapresent a sort of puzzle. Soon he run back out,and joined the girls,as soon as he noticed that it was starting to rain. Outside of the house he found them waiting for him and grabbed their hands without saying a word,it was enough to see the state they were in. He shouldn't have brought them there so soon,thought Leo,as they orbed home in the usual swirl of blue-white lights.


	16. Together we stand,devided we fall

When they came back home it was still quite soon in the evening but they were late for lunch,so they had to justify themselves all over again. The day went by slowly and it didn't just feel boring,they also kept on thinking about what they had seen. They were not supposed to see that. So as evening came they all decided to keep their minds away from that. Paige run to bed at ten,Piper settled down on the couch for a movie night between the older sisters of the clan,Phoebe had left the house at 21.00,as she was going out with some friends and Prue had decided to finally go out with Andy and some other common friends after weeks of staying at home day and night,taking care of them. And when Piper felt her eyelids practically falling,she decided to turn everything off and go to bed. She raised herself up,but before she could take a step,something appeared in front of her. For one moment she was afraid,but then she realized it was just Leo,and that was the second time in the few weeks they had known each other he had done that.

"Why would you appear in front of me that way?"

"Sorry I didn't mean too."

She sat back down and Leo did the same.

"What are you here for?So we can see some more blood,or pheraps a corpse this time,mm?"

"I'm sorry I didn't mean too"

"You already said that,got any other explanation?"

"I didn't know what we were supposed to find,and I didn't mean to make you go through that. I deeply apologize for what I put you through,I realize it must have been horrible,and the pain it's only gonna grow when you'll lose your first charge. Everytime it happens you're gonna feel as if you hadn't done enough,but you must remember always it was not your fault,you did what you could. Cry for them,feel sad,don't be afraid of crying ever,but remember it was not your fault,or else you'll be consumed by the guilt."

Piper's voice trembled as she started talking,as if she were on the vege of bursting in tears:"I just felt so useless,what do witches have power for if they can't save people sometimes?We should always be able to save them. I get she was not our charge,but it doesn't hurt any less,you know?"

"You are strong people,you and your sisters and are going to get by"

"I'm sorry for screaming at you"said Piper sniffling. Leo thought it was the cutest thing she had ever seen,as he watched soft tears wetting her cheeks. Without even noticing he let his hand dry her tears,as he scooped closer to her on the couch.

"I promise I'll try to do anything to help you through this all,I'll try to help you as much as I can,so you won't have to suffer for anybody."

"You're too close mister"said the 15 years old finally smiling a bit,but also lowering her head. He raised it back up,and their faces came so close,their foreheads could almost touch.

"Would you mind if I kissed you?"whispered Piper in a moment of courage.

"Not at all,not at all"

And so their lips softly touched for the very first time. To Piper it was the very first kiss she had shared in her whole life,to Leo it felt like coming back to life,like he had never kissed anybody. Granted he had had a life,but when he kissed Piper he felt as if he had never kissed anybody else in the world. He could've easily sworn they were somehow supposed to be. He had felt so close to her when he had met her,and he had known he loved her right away. He knew it shouldn't have happened,that he was a whitelighter and she was a charge,but she was no normal charge,she was a dream. When their lips parted they smiled at each other,and said nothing for a little bit,just looking at each other. Their eyes were already locked in a silent conversation and the air had gone lighter,there was no more sadness in her eyes.

* * *

Meanwhile Prue was finally enjoying a night outside. Fresh air and friends were helping her forget what she had seen a few hours prior. She had hurt a lot for that,but Andy being his wonderful self was managing to make her suffer less and be more optimisistic,even if she was a pessimist and was used to things not going as planned. She wasn't raising three kids for nothing. All that horrendous scene had thought her something. She needed to put old matters aside,she needed the boy she loved and had finally decided to give him a chance. It had started raining but the rain was carrying no more sadness as she asked Andy to follow here in a more secluded place and decided to act out what she was feeling. Quickly she grabbed his collar and kissed him,with cheeks full of tears. She felt Andy trembling as they were just so close,but he didn't hesitate for a moment to kiss her back. He had waited for too long,and needed her back. He loved her and only her,and that was law.

Phoebe was finished with her friends pretty soon. She just wanted to be by herself that night,so she had decided to take a walk around,and then get back home by feet. It would be just her and the moon. Those things they had seen were horrible. From afar somebody was looking at her,and soon reached her side. She didn't notice for minutes,then she realized she was in somebody's company and jumped a few steps back from the fear. But then seeing him in the light made her realize the shadow was no treath.

"Jason"

"Phoebe"

"How did you..were you following me,oh my God you're a stalker!"

Jason laughed,saying:"no,not at all,I was just passing by,this is my neighborhood too,you know?"

"No I didn't,but I grew up here,so I guess you haven't been here for long have you?"

"Not for a long time,you're right I moved here this summer. Where do you live?"

"Prescott street"

"Then I'm not that far at all,I'm just a few streets far"

"Umbelievable"

"I know"and they both laughed,because none of the two could've minded having company at that moment. It felt like the start of something brand new.

* * *

As her sisters were all living some particoular moments,little Paige was tossing and turning in her bed,thinking back about everything she had seen. It wasn't much,but enough to have scared her for a lifetime. She had tears running down her chubby cheeks and she was trying to get herself to stay calm,but she knew that she couldn't and yet she had to. Her eyes opened and she jumpeds off her bed,running downstairs looking for any of her sisters. Luckily she found Piper sitting on the couch with a big smile on her face.

"Pipeeer,Pipeee"

Her big sister turned around and took in her tears,and her smile inevitably faltered. She had no doubt she,Prue and even Phoebe could've tried to forget,and forced themselves till they hadn't managed,but Paige was just a child,she couldn't force herself into forgetting something so big,and horrible. She made her a sign with her head and opened her arms,into which the little one fell,without speaking another word. Piper settled her on her knees and had her head lying on her chest,to the height of her heart,so that Paige could listen to hers. Her condition was enough,she didn't need anxiety too. Her younger sister cried at first,but then she calmed down and fell asleep in her arms. Piper didn't want to jostle her so she decided she would've slept there,and that was how they were found by Prue and Phoebe when they came back home and decided to join them too,hugging them from both sides. Together they would've never fallen.


	17. Adelheid

Elderland

Sandra was glad about seeing Leo again,and called him as soon as she could.

"Wyatt"

"Sandra"

"I have been watching you?"

The young whitelighter blushed like a lady.

"Me,what did you see?"

"Everything"

"Yeah"

"Mm,got anything to say about it?"

Leo just stayed silent,soon he would've been recycled. He was sure about it.

"No way I'm recycling you,you're too good at what you do,and we are the only two to know right about now. She's a good girl,but they are not gonna like it."

"Yeah,but we''ve only kissed once for now,and I suppose we're soon gonna go out,I can't see the future"

"I get it,but she's no usual charge is she?"

"But Sam and Patty did make it,Paige is still alive"

"She lost them anyways,and if she and her sisters are still here it's because of who they are and because some aren't as strict about it anymore,but some of them aren't still understanding,you get that do you?"

"I know"said Leo,and with that he orbed away again.

* * *

Meanwhile in Berlin,1.00,the sewers

Adelheid run through the sewers of the city. That demon had appeared so suddenly and yet she knew that he was there for her. Her mother had been telling her for years about it,and when she had died she had inherited the burden. That was the reason why she hadn't grabbed anything but her book and piece of pentacle when she had come up with the spell which had saved her ass. Now she had come up with a spell to cloak herself with,but first she needed to call her whitelighter.

"Leo"

The man came as she called.

"Adelheid"

"It's them,they have come to get me"

"The charmed ones are involved too"

When she heard that the witch's eyes widened

"The charmed ones too?They are your charges,you had this honour,what are they like?"

"There are four"

"Four?I thought they were supposed to be three"

"They were,but there was a fourth miracle in the family,the child of a whitelighter"

"That's just wow,know what I thought they were forbidden,were they?"

"They were,but there's nothing you can do when it comes to love"

"So we're gonna meet"

"Yes,I shall bring them here,don't worry you'll be cloaked,I'll try to do my best. Be back soon"

Then Leo orbed away,back to San Francisco to get the legendary Charmed Ones.

* * *

Once he came back,he was holding the arms of thee teenagers and a young kid.

"Well,I didn't expect them to be so young now,did I?"

"Who are you?"asked the youngest of the sisters,bending her head to the side to look up at her. The older woman smiled softly and bent just a bit to grab her hand and shake it,saying her name.

"I'm Adelheid"

"You speak english?"asked a surprised Phoebe

"Well,I do know some languages,yes Leo does know german,but english is useful"

Phoebe nodded satisfacted by the answer,then the three older sisters introduced themselves.

"So which of you is half dead?"

They all laughed at the joke,then Paige spoke up again.

"Nobodys,but I'm a sort of a angel,that's what the old people with beards said,Miss Adelheid".

The german witch kneed and repeated the gesture Sandra had made to her,when they had met and oohed at her cuteness.

"Ohh she's such a cutie. So?How old are you?Experience?How long have you known you're witches for?"


	18. Witchy trip

Now that they were cloaked they could've finally talked about witchy things. Sewers weren't exactly the best place where to have any kind of talk,but a good spell made everything better and they reached a secluded enough place to make a point out of the situation and see where they were standing. Adelheid was being followed and they wanted her killed,they knew exactly who the demon was,as she had pointed him out to them,in her book of shadows,the had the book and th puzzle piece to protect and a potion and some spells to make,so they needed to get down to the job as soon as they could,but since the girls weren't so experienced and they were cloaked,the german witch accepted Leo's request to teach them the basis,maybe starting with some easy potion. So they would've had to fetch some ingredients,for the potion they needed,and for what they were supposed to make to learn. Meanwhile they all came to talk about how they first witch was gone,and Adelheid was sure they weren't following an exact scheme when killing the witches. They would've had to make some research too,and since it was a pentacle it would've made no difference to them who to get first. The only thing they needed to do,was finding the others and trying to help them,the demons were moving all at the same time,they had power,and they were strong. In fact the older witch told them that the demons who were looking for them ranked differently in the hierarchy of the underworld,and that some were actually only helpers,taught them there were demons who were mere minions. The one they had killed for exemple was a lower level. And they still hadn't found out what it had to do with them,but they were and it couldn't be just about them being the charmed ones. But first thing first,in order to stay with Adelheid for a while longer they would've had to give the Trudeaus a good explanation and the school too. They would've said they were going on a little vacation,just for a few days,that they needed to get their minds off things for a little bit,Prue was sure they wouldn't have objected because they were all going together. So once they decided what to do and Leo came back with the things they needed,he orbed them back home to leave for their "vacation".

* * *

The day after

"You're back"

"Yeah"

"Had an hard time?"

"Not at all,they were fine with that,but we're gonna have to call them at last two times per day till we come back and be creative with our lies. You know the city,so I think we're gonna be fine,mm?"said Prue.

"No problem,I know this city like the back of my hand"

"Someday you'll come to San Francisco and we'll show you our city"added Piper,but Adelheid's expression darkened.

"If I'll still be alive when you come back"

"Don't be like that,you're far more experienced than us,and we can try to help,we're very glad about you accepting to help us"

"I couldn't keep from doing that,I ain't doing it because you're the charmed ones. I'm doing it cause you're kids at witchcraft and your two younger sisters can hardly reach my waist,so they're kids for that too. I don't want any of you to go through that,I heard you've already been through enough for an entire lifetime,so I'll help and if I go,I beg you to hide this,throw it away and kill them all".

She passed them the wooden piece rapresenting one of the points of the pentacle.

"Give it to Leo,whenever you can"

A little bit before lunch the girls decided to go out a little bit,and visit the city. No use in being completely serious,they wanted to try being as normal as possible. But meanwhile a demon was lurking in the dark,planning his kill of the day,as he laid his eyes on the four girls,thinking they were the perfect preys. Young, unprotected,unexperienced witches,just the way he liked them.


	19. To see evil

After having taken a small trip around the city,or as much of it as they could(this is 1989 and the wall is still there even if it's about to fall),since they were on the american side and couldn't get through to the other without being shot,that was what their new friend had told them,they decided to get back to the sewers to start with their training. Meanwhile in the shadows the demon had been following them for the whole time,sure he could win. He run towards them and through to make them lose their footing. All the girls fell feet in the air,and looked around,to try understanding what was going on. Before they could talk he grabbed Prue and threw her into the nearby wall. She raised herself up and screamed at whoever was kidding with them to show up. They only heard a laughter. The demon moved once more and invisbly grabbed Phoebe,then she disappeared,while the other three were left eyes widened staring at the place where they had last seen their sister. Piper was the first one to act,shaking Prue out of her self-induced trance,and grabbing Paige's trembling hand,she made sure they were running besides her back to the refuge. When they got there they found Adelheid and felt relieved,she would've surely known how to help them.

The girl saw they were worried and not four so she interrogated them,and promised she would've helped them,then she headed to the place where they had settled all the ingredients and the cauldron for the potions,grabbed the book of shadows and scrolled through the pages to look for the demon. It looked like he was invisible. It took her a bit,and she had Piper helping her,while she showed the other two what to pass her for the potion,but in the end they found him.A lower level demon,easy to take over,but insidious. He could make simple fireballs,and had the advantage of invisibility,but he would go visible everytime he would eat somebody. So the answer was that he had probably eaten up Phoebe. The other three sisters stared at her in horror,but Adelheid smiled at them,almost laughing at their horrified faces and said:"listen there truly is no problem,thanks to your sister he's gonna be visible now,we can just summon him,and we'll see him and be able to vanquish him. You needn't worry. We're doing the potion,we got the spell,just trying to consider everything that might happen. We're all gonna be fine. This is just a little part of what might happen to you from now on. When I was 18 I threw a potion at a demon and he exploded straight in my face,I was too close and he just went puff in my face. There are so many others I could tell you about. We must make two potions,cross them,and make sure we get Phoebe out of there. If all works out as planned we'll be able to defeat a very weakened demon".

With these words they all got down to the job they were supposed to make.

Piper took care of cutting all the herbs,while Prue and Paige had taken upon the work of putting them in the cauldron and m when necessary. While Adelheid would make sure everything was being added in time,and the potion was brewing fine. root,rat eye,hair of a witch(even better if a relative). That was the one they needed to get Phoebe out of trouble,the second one instead was more specific,a little bit harder since it was for a demon. Nonetheless they managed and quickly the potion was ready as they thanked the Lord it was only a lower-level demon. Since they had finished they all got ready for the showdown and to finally make some new field experience.

As they all read the spell,the girls saw the demon appear,and just as planned he was visible. Prue threw the potion at him and he started shaking,contorting,then they heard a scream,and Phoebe was practically shot out of his enlargened,dreadful mouth. They were all wearing a disgusted face,the 13 years old even more than all of them,but she scrambled up to her feet and joined them. Adelheid grabbed the other potion and handed it to Paige.

"Wanna make the house honours little one?"Little Paige grabbed it smiling and threw it as far as she could. She hit the target and he started shaking again and was destroyed by the potion screaming just like everybody else would do. They all looked at each other and shared an accessory look,before sharing a big five all together and satisfied smiles. Adelheid looked at them proudly,she had known them for hardly three days,but she could see they were promising. They were so young,and yet she could say they would've been able to be just fine. Every witch in her place could've said to be proud to have met the Charmed Ones,she was proud to have met four good girls,whom she was getting to train at the very beginning of their jurney as witches,and above all as the Charmed Ones.

* * *

It could have been just the finest of the days,and it was to them,but somebody else in the shadows had witnessed the whole thing and it would've been all fine again hadn't it been for the fact that that somebody should've not known at all. Danger was closer than they could've imagined.


	20. Broken

As night came down Adelheid's stomach started churning. She couldn't bear to eat anything,nor to look at the laughing girls in front of her,nor when they waved her goodnight smile at them. She could feel something in the air. Something like death. She could've called for her whitelighter,tell him about her fears,but it would have served to nothing. He had to be close,she could remember him,he had attacked her in a way that nobody had ever had,killed most of her family out of fun. Many witches like her could've said to have been orphaned by a demon,and she was part of the list. The barrier was still up,and they were invisible to anybody,but he had to have caught the magic in the air. They would always be able to do that,they always seemed to know where you were,above all when they had a specifical reason to attack you. When she laid down on her madeshift bed she knew to expect an attack at every moment,all she had to do was to make sure the book and the puzzle piece were safe,and to stay out of death's way. Something hard to do,and falling asleep she didn't.

* * *

A clock around the city struck the heart of the night for the berliners. In the quiet of the sewers the german witch could feel like a trapped mouse. That demon had managed to get her to that point,had set her up,forcing into a place where he could've easily killed her,going unseen and having his fun. Adelheid raised herself up and run to the book of shadows and their potion table,and got down to an important job,getting the potion for that bastard ready. He was an upper level demon she knew how to act out,the only thing she needed was to add a piece of his skin(which had been very hard to take from him)to make the potion stronger,and destroy him. So once she was over even with that part she casted the spell on it and put it aside,then thought better of it and put it in her pocket,together with the spell that came with the potion,waiting for him to show up at any moment now.

And as if she had called him,around dawn she felt the shield disappearing and heard a crash.

"Axon"

"Hello,Adelheid,wanna give me that little thing now?"

"Not a chance in hell"

She threw herself at him,and kicked him he hit back and a fight began. Axon was well aware of there being other witches,but first he needed to take care of the bitch. Meanwhile all the girls were awaken by the mess,and entered their fight position. Piper jumped into action and blocked him,Prue made to push him into a wall,he unblocked and answered back by throwing several fireballs. They all managed to avoid them at first,but without any further notice the two eldest soon fell on the floor hit by the fireballs,and stayed there,unconscious. Paige felt rage surging into her and raised her hand up,letting the fire do the job. He was engulfed in hit,but since it was a small fire,it didn't kill him off. The little girl being very brave actually run towards him,but got hit too,and with the same fate Phoebe went down too. When the two were left alone,he started throwing fireballs everywhere till when the whole place wasn't on fire,the he shimmered behind Adelheid and grabbed her from her neck,making her head hit the wall. She didn't lose consciousness,but was left stunned,blood covering her sight. And that was enough,for Axon to grab the book,summon the grimoire and say the spell and have the good one going blank. Everything there had ever been of good in there was whiped away in a single moment. He smiled a sick smile,as he knew it had all worked out,but he needed to do one last thing before killing the bitch or killing them all,since they seemed to be good friends. He needed to find the puzzle piece,the damn piece of pentacle. He looked for it everywhere,but it was nowhere to be found. He became very mad when he didn't manage to find it anywhere,so he decided to vent his rage at Adelheid and beat her up,till blood couldn't be seen forming in a pool under her. As he was doing that he didn't notice Phoebe creeping behind him and grabbing the vial of potion which had rolled out of Adelheid's pocket moments before,luckily not breaking,together with the spell. She raised her hand to bring it down on him,as he turned around. Once again he smiled sickly,but she allowed him to say no more and in a swift move threw the potion at him,then read the spell,vanquishing him.

* * *

Things calmed down,there was no noise left,and sun was raising behind the clouds. Phoebe knew things were dire,so she called for the only person she thought could have helped.

"Leo"

He orbed in right away and took in the scene. He first run to Piper made sure she was fine,and so were the others by healing them like when the darklighter had come visiting them,then he run back to Adelheid to check out the situation,and first went for her pulse. Leo held his eyes shut tight and tried to focus on healing her,but felt no heat coming from under his hands,not like the one he had felt when he had healed the girls,not like the one he had felt when he had healed Piper. He opened them again,and checked out again for an unexistent pulse,he knew he could've never found.

"What's going on?"asked all the sisters

"I can't heal the dead".


	21. Escape

What they had heard had left them all stunned,and mouth agape,and there was nothing Leo could've done about it. They were left hurt even more to know that Adelheid had no family to cry for her. They were the only ones who could organize the funeral,the only ones who took part to it,she was buried with Leo saying something and his voice trembling and the four of them crying tears of sorrow. That girl,whom they had known for a total of four days had warmed her way into her heart,made herself be loved,she had taught them about witchcraft,taught them about life. She would've not gone forgotten. They were feeling as if they had lost a mentor,somebody who had made them feel,that yes,being witches maybe wasn't that bad. It was dangerous,but that was what life had dealt them with. She had gone down,fighting,she had gone down for something she had seriously believed in. None of them would've forgotten Adelheid and what she had passed onto them. And the strive to succeed too. They were meant to live,to go,to find the other three and help them,to save them,the way they hadn't been able to save Adelheid,and in her name fight,fight till the very end,without forgetting where they had been and who they had met. So it came as one big surprise,but a great one,when they found out that in one last act of clever thinking their german friend had left them her very own piece of pentacle,and the piece was now safely in the hands of the Elders. Everything that had happened had hit them hard,but they didn't want to give up,they weren't supposed to.

When they left Germany,not truly knowing what their future had in store for her,they left it with an heavy heart knowing they had buried a good friend,a young girl,who wasn't that much older than them. They grabbed their bags and looked around the sewers again,remembering the day they had met Adelheid,and what they had had,then Leo grabbed them,knowing they needed to go.

"We gotta go now"

They all silently touched him,and orbed away,saying goodbye to Berlin.

* * *

A few days later Leo decided to take Piper aside and talk to her. The death of his charge had left him stunned,what was making him so afraid was not what the elders might think,nor what might happen,but what had happened,and the painful thought it could've happened to her too. Not just because she was 15 years old,but because he loved her and he didn't want her to go,he didn't want to suffer,if she had died and they were together,then he wouldn't have suffered. He wouldn't have felt a thing.

"Piper,we gotta talk"

She followed him and tried to kiss him once they were out of her sisters' sight,but he shied away.

"What's wrong?"

"Iwannabreakupwithyou"

"Excuse me?"

"I wanna break up with you Piper"

"Why?"

"I can't be with you"

"Is it because of Them?Did they tell you something?"

"No,no,you're getting it wrong,nobody knows. But I can't be with you."

"Say it,I'm not perfect,here's why you don't want me"

"Piper,I can't"

"Then why don't you leave,why don't you just go?You weren't even there when we needed you"

"What?You're not being serious"

"Just leave,leave damn it!"

And Leo did go. Leo orbed away,feeling distraught about what he had done to her,but he needed to stay away from her,and help her only when it was needed. Hadn't it been for her,he would've already asked to be reassigned,cause he didn't want to fail them,once the time had come. He left and felt her pain as he was going,as if they were already the closest of lovers. He could hear her crying in his ear,on her sisters shoulders,as he was leaving another warzone behind. But he would've come back,he would've come back,'cause he wanted to be there for her and to be forgiven for what he had done,maybe someday she would've realized he was only doing it to save himself from the deepest hurt he had never,ever felt.


	22. Melt my heart

Some days just went by without the sisters seeing Leo,but in the meantime they kept on fighting against "usual" demons. They were all pretty mad at him,but it couldn't have been otherwise,he had made Piper hurt and to have to deal with mad Piper was not good at all. They had almost gotten used to the demoniac routine,even though they were still at the Trudeaus. But jobs in their house were going great,and quickly and in a couple of months they would've actually been able to move back into their beloved Manor. Maybe even before Prue graduated. She had indeed left her job,and now she had more time to be with her sister and her once again boyfriend Andy. Things were going fine for her at school,and sometimes they would even manage to look normal,for the sake of being so too.

Eventually Piper cooled down a little bit,but she didn't stop hurting fo him. She truly did love him,like she had never loved anybody and it was sad to know that he had left her without an e(spiegazione). That was all she cared about. To know why he had left her,and why he would pass by so few,even if she knew he would always be watching over them. He was a stupid idiot,and nobody could've convinced her of the other way around. Going back and forth in her room she could've sworn to have him close,so much that she could've called him. But she didn't.

Then a demon suddenly shimmered into the living room and Piper being alone tried to deal as much as she could.

She blocked him,and gave herself the time to grab a lamp and throw it at him to hurt him,however it didn't do as much as gracing him. She run a little bit further,and tried to remember the potion she,her sisters and Adelheid had used to destroy the demon of invisibility,then remembered they had made a store just in case because they were short of ways to make potions. He looked like a lower level demon who could be destroyed easily. Being all panicked she decided to call for Leo and he,as usual,came.

As if he had been observing her for true,he was carrying a little vial and tried to hand it to her,but as soon as he moved towards her the demon threw her on the floor,even if the fireball wasn't the most strong. He held onto the potion tightly and did the job himself,vanquishing the demon,but Piper stayed on the floor,unmoving.

He run to her and turned her around and saw the wound in her chest,quickly he put his hands on it and waited for the white-yellow light and the warm feeling to come from under them. At first nothing happened,and Leo felt as if his dead heart had skipped a beat once again,and come back alive,but then he saw the light appearing,he notice the warmth under his hands,and Piper's eyes moved under the closed eyelids,looking for something,or rather somebody sitting by her side. In fact as soon as she opened her eyes she found him there,bathed in light and it felt amazing as if nothing had happened and he hadn't broken up with her.

He let tears fill his eyes and said "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to break your heart."

"Why?"answered Piper still lying on the living room's floor.

"I didn't want anything to happen to you,I didn't want you to die,not like Adelheid"

"But this makes no sense you know"

"It would be my fault,I thought if I could've just stayed away from you,then you would have never gotten hurt,neither would have I,had something ever happened. I didn't want to hurt in case you had gone and..."

"Died"

"Yes. Above all I know what you're doing,I saw you,you need to stop,if you don't wanna leave me. I don't want you to leave me,I beg you to not do it anymore"

"I'll it's so hard"

"Eventually it will stop"

He grabbed her and helped her sit up,hugging her.

"It won't"

"It will,I promise."

"I love you Leo"

"I love you too Piper"


	23. Get it right

If Piper had been told such a thing a few weeks before,she would've laughed into people's faces,even her own sisters. She had never thought she could've been with somebody,let alone somebody like Leo. On that monday she had the proof that she had chosen the right man,and that he would've not disappointed her. That monday he came soon in the morning,with a car she had never ever seen,because Leo didn't indeed have a car,and brought her to school. Not even understanding what was going on,she was left even more surprised when Leo came down the car with her and got her to the door,and came in with her. She would've asked him about it,but the whitelighter just smiled at her,let his arm go around her waist to hug her and closed the door right behind himself after she had come in,sitting besides her in class. Without noticing something had started shifting. And people were looking at him as if he had grown 3 heads all at once,but for the first time since Piper had entered Baker high she felt like she could've cared nothing about what the others were saying,because all she cared about was what Leo was doing or thinking or saying. If he wanted to go with her she would've kept on accepting happily. Nobody in there had ever done anything remotely gentle to her,but she could've gotten used to having Leo fixing this. For the first time in her life,Piper Halliwell had fallen in love,and seriously,and she would've not wasted those moments at all. When they left school they did it together,hand in hand as they had done for the whole day.

* * *

The day went by as normal as it could have been and the sisters were finally having some peace. But they were witches,and witches could hardly ever have a normal day. Demons and new threats were always out to get them,and they were to be careful,they were to be. New evidences were slowly taking straight to finding out where the 3rd witch was. When the stone fell they finally had a new place where to go and a new mission to accomplish this time,they wanted no more losses than there had already been.

Their next destination was Italy,but they still were supposed to find out which city they needed to reach and so the bet between sisters began,Leo decided to not take part in it and orbed away to find out something more about the next witch,as the girls laughed the night away. Before doing that however he kissed his girlfriend and wasted no time saying right away that they were back together.

* * *

Meanwhile in Italy another witch would've soon been on the run,as the demon who was out to get her,was there just lurking in the dark,waiting for her every little mistake,so that he could've gotten her. She might have even been sure about her powers,but she would've had to surrender. There would've been no other choice but to give up and the brotherhood would've triumphed as it had always had to be.


	24. Mind the water

As soon as they had ben notified that they had round the other witch,and she was still hiding and doing fine they had decided to postpone the departure to winter holidays,which were right behind the corner. They decided to spend the first days at Andy's family,but soon the time to go came. Since they had taken a trip not even a month earlier they couldn't have fed them up the same old excuse and decided to act out differently,and try reaching to her every night,ad the Trudeaus were often out,for either dinners,work and whatever,or would just go to bed ad sono ad they could. It was their third trip now,they had already had to face two disappointments and couldn't have accepted another one. So december 17th found them all grabbing Leo's arms and reaching the next destination. Being anxious and curious about their new missione. Once they had orbed the first thing they did was gasping at the beauty of the city they were seeing. Girls would've always been girls. Venice was one spectacular city,resting on a bed of soothing water and the moon was making it look eventi more gorgeous,while playing with it. Just like Paris,they could've said it to be a place full of witchcraft and intriguing stories set either in the past or present,but as magical,even between those who had no sparkof magic in tbeir bodies and were normal people,going through life oblivious to the existence of it. As they looked around themselves,Leo updated them with some news about the witch they were supposed to meet.

"Her name is Elisa, she doesn't live far from bere,she's in her teens,I met her whitelighter before coming,I'm sure you're gonna be great together"

As he was talking,they entered a little street between two buildings not far from Piazza San Marco, on the lagoon and a door opened for them. They walked into a place bathed intorno darkness,and walked down forma a flight of stairs which brought them intorno a room,which seemed to be a sorta of zero floor under the sea,as it was too big to be a simile basement. And when they came in lights turned on,and the door shut behind them,disappearing. From the inside they could hear the soothing water hitting the walls of the alcove,but they were soon interrupted by the voice of a girlbwho wasn't much older than Piper. She introduced herself as Elisa, showed them her book of shadows,the piace avere sue had hidden the piece of pentacle and the demon they needed to defeat. She revealed them it was a water one,and the two oldest shivered.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah,so what were se talking about?"

They kept on talking,but Prue and Piper couldn't shake the hurt away. Their mother had died by drowning,water terrified them,but none of them thought this to be more than a coincidente though they should have known otherwise. And yet Elisa with her perkiness managed to cheer them up,and explained to them who Trea was,how he could shape water,and was water itself,and was lurking into the very same lagoon looking for them. Adelheid had thought them how to be brave and professional,Elisa would have thought them how to work with faith in their hearts. The four sisters were sure they had ended up in good hands as they went through the potion and the spell which could've destroyed that demon. And they were faithful they could've gotten through. When dawn came and Elisa's whitelighter had already left,the girls came back to San Fran,and momentarily parted ways with their new friend. After they reached home,all the girls gathered into their shared room,and skipper intorno Prue's bed,and with lots of hope in their hearts they fell into the calmest of sleeps since they had come back from Berlin.


	25. Feeling high,feeling low

On Christmas eve the girls decided to pay their italiano friend a visit,after a long dinner with the Trudeaus,so thry VOT there when it was late in San Francisco,but still evening in Venice. They shared some hours if fun and even exchanged gifts,as E adviced them to forget anything just for one day. The underwater floor was bathed in the light of the sunset. Elisa left Paige to play with her new toy,abile Piper and Prue sede talking about who knows what,and walked towards Phoebe who seemed to be a little down.

"Doin fine?"

"Yup"

"Then why are you sitting bere?Alla by yourself."

"My mother would always make this day special,she never let it weight on us that we were fatherless"

"So she's gone"

"She died when I was five,she...drowned..and my grandma had to take it all upon herself." Then Elisa raised herself up and helped her up too.

"I'm sorry. How would you like to go out?"

"Right now?"

"Yeah"

Phoebe smiled a little bit and shrugged,nodding. She walked to Prue and quickly told her they sede out of there,then they disappeared from the room,ad the magical door shut right behind them. The others had no way to say anything and just let them go out.

Once they had the chance to go a round the squadre and walk a little bit,they manager to know a lot more about each other,much more than they had talked about in the three times they had seen each other. Elisa told her dhe needed to trust in herself,to not get lost in a glass of water,and grabbed her hand promising she would've helped her if she had ever been in need and they walked back home feeling both better about their lives,but ad calm couldn't last for too long and they were soon interrupted by the noise of water. Elisa had been living in Venice her whole life and knew it could have only meant one thing.

"We need to go and move upstairs there's soon gonna be a flood"and Phoebe did follow her,looking at her under a new light.


	26. From the lagoon it comes

Elisa and Phoebe walked back to the former's house and looked for Phoebe's sisters downstairs,but then they realized they had already made their way up and joined them. The door was already open for them and when they came in they saw Paige playing,Leo and Fabio talking and Prue pacing back and forth,with Piper trying to calm her down. As soon as she saw her 13 years old sister,she went to her and slapped her,and Elisa drew aside. Phoebe was left mouth agape,but soon she tried to answer back. Prue managed to grab her hand before it could hit her face,but Phoebe ripped it off her own and left,disappearing into the hallway and entering a room she had never seen(the first she found)slamming the door behind herself. Elisa was left with no doubt,and soon followed Phoebe into the room,which as if on porpuse,actually happened to be hers. Prue instead was left fuming and complaining in the middle of the evening room,but Piper managed to have her sitting down,and staying calm a little bit. Deep inside she knew she had hurt Phoebe,but she hadn't even asked her for permission. However the issue was not that she had left without really asking,and right in front of her,but that she had done it at such a dire time,though deep inside she also knew that Phoebe couldn't have known. So she felt guilty.

* * *

Meanwhile Prue was just as mad. What right did Prue have to tell her what to do?She was about to lash out on whoever was coming in,but then she realized it was Elisa,and she decided she didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of her rage. Elisa had taken no part in it. The girl sat down,right besides her,and without saying anything just grabbed her hand and grimaced her way.

* * *

Piper was pretty much sick of the fights,but it was her job and she would've carried it out till the very end. However she was entitled to have an opinion,and she couldn't stand what Phoebe was becoming. At 13 she was taking a very bad road and she didn't want her to end up God knows where. She would've stayed strong and gotten everybody through,even if she wasn't the strongest at all.

* * *

Nonetheless the hours which had passed by things just kept on getting worse and the day after they were still magically stranded into the house,and plus they couldn't even normally get out of it as the lagoon was even more swollen,and there was nobody on the sidewalks nor the water. Prue and Phoebe weren't talking to each other,Piper was losing it,and Paige was growing tired of being all coped up in the house with her sisters fighting and being included in those too. It was as if they were slowly drifting apart and this was no good. If only they had known they would've stopped,even though they already had the spell and several potions ready. Because when they were less expecting it,the oldest and youngest sister spied an odd blob of water out of the window and were left wide eyed. It was early morning and the house had gone silent. As soon as the others felt the change they realized that something had shifted and they were being attacked.


	27. Saving the day and an hurtful message

When the water raised,the had to spring into action. It got closer and closer to the window till when the glass broke and shards of it almost hit them. But they managed,and moved away from the broken glasses,as wind was coming in from the newly made hole,and rain too,since it had started raining again. Water came in,in a strange blob,and the house was filled with water from the lagoon and earth was taken from under their feet,making them almost fly away from each other. Elisa crouched down and touched the floor trying to connect with th earth. She knew it was hard and infact nothing happened. So she run to the door,slammed it open,and run downstairs,where the water was up almost to her neck. She walked heavily,to the front door leading to the outside,and opened it again. Once outside she tried to touch the earth again,and enter the contact. She managed and this time,the sidewalk moved an odd way,kind of raising. It broke till she couldn't see the very grass coming out of it and pointed it the water's way. It did work out,but it was nothing more than a diversive. However upstairs things weren't exactly going great. Prue and Phoebe were fighting about the best way to deal with the demon. Things started flying around and nobody could seriously care about Piper trying to break it down. In the midst of it all,the spell went lost and the potions they had made were left broken on the floor,while Elisa couldn't understand what was going on on the upper floor. She looked up and lost focus on her target,flying a few feet away,but luckily was not harmed. She raised herself up,and quickly decided to run back upstairs and try solving things. She saw all the ruckus,but felt like she couldn't do anything for it,quickly she asked Piper and Paige to follow her and fake to be in danger,and they didn't oblige. They used all their lungs to scream and fake it all,they tried,and actually obteined a result. Prue and Phoebe heard them,and flew downstairs their way,and even if they found out they were not in danger at all,they felt ashamed for what they had done,and for abandoning them in the middle of trouble. Potions and spells,were all gone,and when they were less expecting it,Prue was sweeped up by the water and thrown into the lagoon. But while Elisa tried to recall her power,and Piper and Paige were left standing speechless to the sides of the watery sidewalk holding onto a wall to stay up,Phoebe run all the difference from the wall to the lagoon and jumped into it to try looking for her oldest sister. The other three screamed for her,but the 13 years old couldn't hear them as she was looking for Prue,and was focused with trying. Soon she spotted her struggling a few meters below her,and collected all the air she needed to swim towards her. Prue was afraid of water,she knew and she needed to make it better. In a certain way she managed to grab her hand,and even if she had to try hard,as Prue was heavier than her,to pull her up till the breaking the surface of water. It moved but they made it. And soon their oldest sister was on the sidewalk again,panting,but alive. The two sisters held each other tight,and Piper had a brilliant idea and had Elisa using her power to turn most of the water,and so the demon,into grass. She did so,as Piper looked for a couple of electric objects. A pc,a microwave,some more things,and kept them above her head,as she came back up,then she asked her sisters and their friend to get back in and reach her. Together they let those objects out of the door as Elisa let the demon free. They watched it trembling,but it didn't go away completely. It turned into a sort of littler being with a mouth as it told them something which would have hurt anybody.

"I killed your mothers,and if I didn't manage to kill you,then somebody else will. You should have seen them dying,I had so much fun,all trembling up to their deaths. Remember there will be others out there. And you'll be done for."

Prue felt angered by this line,and started throwing other things at him,helped by Elisa with her earthly power. The demon started screaming and smoking then it exploded into a thousand of tiny pieces,which also came in from the window,into the house and had them flying apart from each other. They were left on the floor for a bit,but it wasn't long before they raised themselves up,looking at each other shocked.

* * *

"He had to tell them,didn't he?"

"Sam,this is something we could have done nothing about,sooner or later they would have found out"

"It's their destiny now,isn't it?"

"Theirs and theirs only,I know Patty".


	28. Maybe

Once the demon was gone,and were left looking at each other,it took a little bit before raising up and without saying a word all the girls,none excluded,decided to clean up the mess the demon had left behind,and deal with their own thoughts. What had been said had hurt,but while Elisa had always known everything about the fate her mother had met,she wasn't as sure about what the sisters had always known,but they didn't look good,they looked down,crestfallen,and they didn't even look happy about having defeated the demon. Elisa knew she should have thought about what Piper had thought about a long time ago,but she had only met him once before,and it had been when her mother had been killed,right in front of her eyes,trying to protect her. It was a picture which should have stayed in her mind forever,something which had never abandoned her. But she couldn't allow them to suffer any more than they were,so she sat them down,telling them they could've kept on working the damages out later and they plopped on the couch with no enthusiasm on their faces.

"Girls,I know you are,you feel pretty bad about what happened. I understand you,God knows how much I do,but I can't stand seeing you this way. Before,when we were out there you showed me what being strong sisters means. It means that you won't give up on each other no matter what. Yes your mother is gone,and yeah she was killed by that demon,but darn it you're still here,you're still standing. She faught so you could live."

From the deepest part of the couch a little teary voice came.

"It was my fault. He killed my mommy because of me."

Prue was left shocked by what Paige had said,and turned around grabbing her hands,then hugging her and asking her why she would say such a stupid thing.

"Because there's the prophecy and they want to kill me,they want us all,but they want me the most,cause I'm different,and I could help them with their plan"

All the others' eyes widened,but then thinking back about what had happened to them,and the attacks they had sometimes had to endure,and what they had been told about Paige,they realized that what she had said wasn't exactly incoherent.

"You live in San Fran"

"Yup"

"Do you think you might be holding a part of the pentacle too?"

"Maybe,maybe we should look for it though we're still fixing it back up"

"You could do that anyways. But remember what I told you about your mother,cause mine had to face the same destiny...she did that for you,so you could still be here."

After having said that Prue and Paige decided to go take a nap together. Piper was left thinking deeply about what she had been said and had seen that day,while Phoebe stood up,and followed Elisa out of the door,into the floor's hallway.


	29. Pained souls

With all the mess which had happened it took them some days to get back to normality so when they "boarded"their "Leo-lift"home it was already the 28th and they had been gone for four days. Only God could know what the Trudeaus had to have thought,but they would have had to deal with it,even if it had meant telling them everything about who they were and what they could do. On the bright side,someone else had decided to follow them home,saying she could've taken some days off now that her job was partly done. In fact Elisa had decided to follow them from Venice,and visit San Fran,holding onto the promise of a counter invitation they had exchanged when they were at her' thing first,when they came back they noticed that the house seemed to be silent. Not eerily silent,but surely they watched as the doors to the conservatory moved and Mr and Mrs Trudeau came out of it,wearing worry on their faces,they sureLy couldn't have expected the girls to appear right in front of them. The very first action of the two older people was to run at them and hug them,saying they had been sickly worried about them and their whereabouts,but then they received one big scold and they were all made to sit down to talk. Andy's parents had had to denounce their disappareance and now they were to call the whole thing off,but they knew nothing about what had happened and they wanted explanations,or else they couldn't have helped them,and if social workers had noticed this it would have taken them nothing to take Piper,Phoebe and Paige away from Prue. It was very hard as Prue explained herself and tried to make sure to not reveal the most crude and personal details,but the Trudeaus were left shocked anyways. They had multiple reactions. They felt mad,betrayed,surprised,they were speechless,but in the very end they would have had to talk and say what they needed to let them know what their fate was.

* * *

At first really,things just kept on being fine,Andy was glad about Prue being back,Phoebe and Elisa would keep getting on everyday better than the one before,and Piper and Paige were calm,and fine. But good things had never lasted in their lives,and even if things had gone fine with their disappareance the Trudeaus kept getting colder and colder at them,till it didn't get umbearable and one night it all caught up to them. Andy's parents snapped,muttering something about how dangerous they were,and in the span of ten minutes and several screams they were out of the door,luggages on the front porch and Andy's eyes looking at them with a mixture of pain,and sadness. For the very first time Andy Trudeau was they were back to square one,leaving into an half broken house.

* * *

The following day,Prue didn't see Andy on the front porch like everyday,and to her it felt final. It was over,when it had just began. They had just gotten back together,and life had been unfair once more. She needed to forget,so she chose to get down to the new matter. And that matter was to find the fourth witch,and find their very own piece of pentacle,and about how thier baby sister was implied in it and if they truly wanted to get her,just like she had said with tears in her eyes. She needed to work things out once more,and be in control,then she would've been fine,even if she was not at all


	30. Anyway the wind blows

Living into a not exactly perfect house wasn't easy and studies were not progressing. For some reason no social service had bothered coming their way and that sat fine with them all. They had come so far empty ended. They had figured out there had to be a sort of scheme in the killings and who had been granted the chance to have the pieces of the pentacle. It had to do with elements. Water,fire,earth and air. They had Earth still with themselves,they had lost Fire with Adelheid. So they were either going for water or air. Leo had exposed his ideas,and thrown in a couple of city they might have had some issues with. Phoebe was dead set on it being Chicago. Her visions according to her had said so. Their journeys had been quite stalled by either school/work and research but they hadn't put it all down. They had meanwhile faught the usual,daily fight,and had gotten just as good as they could,matters of heart put aside for the oldest sister. Prue however didn't fancy stalling. Ever. It could only mean more trouble to come than needed. All her life had been calm before the storm.

It came as no surprise when Leo bursted in with his usual not knocking to tell her that Phoebe had been right.

Showtime.

* * *

Chicago had to be the coolest thing even with the pounding rain,and the wind blowing. They landed smoothly as usual. If it was air,then it meant that their first witch had had water. They had a lead and they needed to get there. And they were meeting on the Willis tower. Highest tower of the city. Orbing they did,and the skyline came into view,together with the blowing wind. They were met with the sight of a girl in her mid 20's,with her arms crossed. She walked out of the shadows,her arms fell along her hips,and that was when they noticed that there was something of wrong.A demon had walked out of the shadows,and let her fall on a hip on the floor as soon as they all could see.

"Easy to be disposed of"

His laughter sounded like a boom into the night,he had the typical maniac look of grabbed the poor witch and threw her at them missing them just by a inch.

"She seemed to be under the stupid hope she could've actually made it against me. Guess she was wrong".

It seemed to throw earth at them,but Elisa was quicker and intercepted it. They hadn't been prepared for an attack,they had no potions or spell,so they had to act on their own skills. Leo managed to throw it off balance,as Prue stepped forth to hit it as much as she could,followed right away by Phoebe. Paige took it as a cue,and run as fast as her little legs could carry her to try catching the piece of pentacle which had fallen off it's hands when Leo had attacked it. The demon noticed and managed to throw them off him and stalked towards Paige. Piper who up till then had kept out of it all,tried to walk towards them,but before she could the wind picked up and it knocked them all off their feet,the demon too. Suddenly the concrete under Paige shook.

Piper froze everything. But the demon only slowed down,the time to get Paige off the falling concrete,then he started moving again. He summoned the piece of pentacle to himself and run to the cornice of the ceiling jumping into the night like the Spiderman. Leo orbed out of the ceiling and right behind him,as the girls run towards the point they had disappeared from to take a look at the fight. They only saw blue white orbs lighting up the sky,interspersed by a start of lightenings and black from time to time,then the black went away all of a sudden.

Confused,they tried to understand what was going on,but white lights orbed into their path and in a moment they were disappearing,the usual feeling of orbing reaching out to them before they could even notice.

They appeared back into the attic and knew something was wrong right away.

**Yo all,I'm back again,I deeply apologize for the five months hiatus but life kinda got in the way(college and stuff),but being on holiday now I've got all the time I need to take care of my fics. **

**So the girls have found the fourth witch(dead unfortunately =( ),but what happened while they were away?Stay tuned and you'll soon know.**

**xoxo Thetimeinbetween**


	31. Bring me to life

Their attic was upside down. Everything had been touched,upturned,searched into,and there were potions on the floor. In the middle of the room,spread out for everyone to see there was a body cladded in white. It looked like they had been tryin to bring or tell them something,but they had been too late. Leo knew right away. An elder had been killed. But how?It had to be that he had been looking for them,or else he would've known,he would've felt it.

Elisa run around the room,apparently for something,when she turned she had a look of terror in her face.

"Somebody stole my piece"

The others looked just as surprised. And once again Leo knew it was no good,cause he knew who was lying on the floor. It was the same elder he had given Adelheid's piece too. If he was in there and he had been carrying that piece around,it could only mean one thing. The brotherhood had come for their pieces. Between the other two,one had been stolen in Montmatre before they could do anything,and the other had just been acquired in Chicago,where he had uselessly tried to stop that demon from taking it four had been lost. Only one missing,tables had been turned. And maybe the last piece was theirs,just as Elisa had suggested.

"The last piece is clearly ours"

"What do we do?"

"We get ready. They are gonna come back. They were looking for it,but unlike Elisa's they didn't find it. We need to talk about it,but first..."

Leo orbed the body away and sent a mental message to the Elders,explaining what had happened.

"Prue, let's give a second look around this attic,we need to find it,Elisa I need to bring you up there for a bit,They want you up there. Phoebe would you mind the spells?We don't exactly know what we're up against,but I trust in your good skills. Piper,the potions,as usual we'll need to use your grandmothers ,you help Piper?"

The kid nodded,and together they started working as he orbed their italian friend to Elderland.

* * *

It was hours before they were suddenly awoken by a squeal of wonder. They all skipped up in their chair,or the old couch.

"I found it"it was Phoebe's voice.

They all run to her. Half disheveled. Paige in Prue's arms.

She had made a hole of four wooden tiles in the old pavement of the was other oak under and into it a circle was stuck.

"She knows all the tricks of the house"

Phoebe smiled up at Prue,then looked back down. Slowly she detatched it from the floor,and it came away with no damage,as she showed it to her sisters. That one piece completed the puzzle,which was now incomplete to them. The demons had taken all the others,and would've surely soon come for their own. They had faught so hard for the ones they had,that it was hard to not doubt things would've been alright. But they had come far,they had had to learn the ways through other means,but they couldn't give it up. Not for them,not for the world. They owed it to the ones they had met during that first journey as witches,to themselves,and all those innocents outside who deserved a chance at life.

The waiting was as killing as it could've been. In the last days it had all been a waiting they knew all too well. They were constantly looking behind their backs. Meanwhile Elisa had come back to Venice,under the surveillance of Leo and to not raise suspects in her family. New year's eve had slipped by,and so had winter leaving it's place to an heated march. They had kept close,much to everybody's happiness,above all Phoebe's,and the researches had gone on. Fruitless for now,but they had been given some quiet. Quiet they hadn't seen in months. Wild life was still a good attraction to Phoebe,whereas Piper had slowed down her cutting,and was facing things with quite a surge of confidence as Leo had promptly joined the Jocks. Nobody had made fun of her in the last month and half. Prue was nearing graduation everyday more,but the closer she got to graduation,the further she was from Andy. The golden couple of Baker High had split up,leaving the place void for her younger sister to take,and Prue really didn't mind havin nobody gossiping too much about her,or acting like neanderthals around Piper. There were things they had solved,and things yet to be solved however.

The Elders had tried to uncloack possible hiding places,and demons had been under interrogation,but nobody seemed to know or wanted to say a thing. So they had been vanquished,without any other word.

* * *

From vanquished to vanished the step was short. Phoebe's creek hadn't exactly shrunk,but they were missing a component. Cole. He was nowhere to be seen,and nobody knew where he was. At first the teenager thought he might have disappeared,but after a week she had news. Cole had moved cities,and that was why he had abandoned the creek. She felt sorry for that,he had been quite the good kisser,but they hadn't shared much more than that,and maybe a smoke. All in all life was still calm,her sisters looked ok,and she had found quite the friend in Eli. She wasn't shy like Ramona,and she wasn't something mixed up as the boys,she wasn't even like Jason who had walked her home a couple of times more,and she definitely wasn't her sisters. She loved them dearly,but they basically knew everything about her. Not that Eli knew it all about her either. When she was with her,she was making no mention of the other side,always feeling like she didn't need to know that. She was constantly trying to not disappoint her. To tell her that she was something near to a criminal,though she had never dared to steal,or what,would've been losing her. And she didn't want to. Not at all.

**Soooo,it seems like Cole might have left San Fran. In the meantime,Piper and Leo have acquired quite the status,and things are looking up for them. What's with the demons?Where are they?All about it in the following chapters. xoxo Thetimeinbetween.**


	32. Hello n' goodbye

March 26th '89

At Easter they all reunited at the table,all cooperating for a good meal. It was good to celebrate together,to be with family,by then all of them had their back. Leo would be around very much,Elisa had come back for holidays,and had ongoing planes she had only hinted about in the previous days. Day by day they had seen all the commotion go down,demons hadn't shown up in a week. Leo was talking to her,while the sisters were all chatting about anything and nothing. At the end of their lunch,in a house which looked better than it had in months they all chose different things and nobody minded. Leo and Piper sat in the conservatory in each other's embrace,as Paige played around with new toys. Prue opened the door for Andy to come in,as Phoebe and Eli sat in the room she shared with her youngest sister.

* * *

Andy sat on the couch and looked up at her. She could see him trying to understand her feelings,but she raised up her walls,and again nothing to see for the boy.

"You're here. How come?"

"I.."

"I thought we had broken up,you didn't seem to care"

"Prue my parents..."

"They don't understand. I get it,why should they...for all they know we're freaks to them."

"I'm just trying to.."

"What?What are you trying to tell me...spit it out...I'm not a child anymore."

"I'm moving."he said as she looked at him wide eyed.

He hardly found the courage to tell her the next part because he still loved her,no matter what.

"I want to be a cop,you've known it for a couple of years. I thought...but then it all came out and my parents..I'll be moving after graduation. I'm sorry".

Prue nodded,then her look hardened.

"Why are you still here?Why are you here at all?"she asked,but was met with silence. Only the look she gave him had him stand up from the couch he had sat on a lot as a child and a teenager too and which had miracolously been saved,and standing right in front of her for a few moments,before leaving a soft lingering kiss between her lip and cheek. If he could've he would've stayed with her forever,but she was the one who had always stood strong in their relationship. She wasn't crying or anything,only if you had looked well,you could've seen the sadness in her eyes. But Andy was no different then any other,and just like many he stood there looking at her,'till she didn't turn around,and he was brave enough to turn too,and walk to the front door,leaning on it one last time,before walking out of it and shutting it behind himself.

If he had stayed one minute more,he could've spotted her turning around,wiping away tears,and tearing the door open,without running behind him. He walked away into the light of the evening as she looked at him from the treshold.

* * *

"What?Really?"

"You'd be surprised. I went to him,he sat me on the couch and said:"honey,I hope you're ok with this but I've just accepted a job offer in San Fran..and I was all like:"Dad...I love you...you're the best"

"He truly is."

"Hum I'm sure"

"I'm glad you got him"

"I'm glad you've got your sister. I see how much she cares about you"

"Yeah she does,maybe,but I won't give up the skank outfit."

"Not a chance in the underworld of course young lady"laughed out the italian girl,as Phoebe joined in.

"Promise you won't turn little cute Paige into one"

"I'll do by best,won't promise anything however."

"Best is enough"

Elisa climbed up on the bed and sat right beside her.

"Shoes off"

"Didn't think you're a neat freak,Halliwell"

"Oh shut up"said Phoebe grinning and throwing a pillow that Elisa managed to avoid while laughing.

"Wanna put on a movie?"suggested the older girl.

Phoebe jumped off the bed and went to her shelf of movies,but in truth the choice would always be falling on the movie she loved the most "Kill it before it dies". Elisa had never watched it. She watched her smile at the choice,as the girl looked up at her.

"Okay,let's see what this movie is all about. You said it's good so it has to be good".

Phoebe shrugged looking aside with a slight blush on her pale face. They watched the movie in religious silence, stealing furtive looks to each other,only to get back to the movie when their eyes would be meeting. It had started in the evening,but the whole thing went well into the night as they went through a couple of movies more with Phoebe letting Eli choose the others. She found herself enjoying the whole thing,and when night came,for the first time since she had joined her creek,she forgot everything about their usual sunday meeting,falling asleep instead to the sound of soothing tales like the waves of a lagoon,and the stars reflecting into it like a shining blanket of gold.


	33. Wish it would rain down

As children everybody surely heard about the black man. To the Halliwells it was the woogeyman,but the concept was all the same. A thing lurking into the night waiting to catch kids and steal them from their beds on a usual night,while everybody was asleep and couldn't have possibly noticed. Paige was no whimp,she was turning five soon,so she wasn't afraid of the dark and came downstairs with no problem. But could you say you had no problem at all with darkness?Because the Manor looked big and shadowy at night,and it felt cold as it had never been. And she was no empath,but she turned around suddenly and saw the big shadow in front of her gettin close,and dared to scream. She heard her family scrambling to their feet from their beds,and fly through the stairs towards where she was. She tried to orb away,but fear,her first trigger failed her in the moment of need as he grabbed her and sent a gust of air towards them. They tumbled out of the room,but Prue stood up and used her telekinesis to attack him. Elisa struck the pavement and earth came out of it in a sort of little wall which was directed towards the demon,she kept up the barrier for Piper to freeze him enough to take Paige away from the demon. They managed,then the demon unfroze. He snarled at them,and raised his hands once more. The wind had them on their knees once more,as the earth wall fell,the demon used his powers to turn it into a hurricane. The earth blinded them and covered the conservatory. There was lots of movement,pushing,white orbs,and fighting,then the whole place fell into darkness and silence. The conservatory looked pretty normal aside from the dust which had settled on the whole forniture,and the things which had fallen broken on the floor,everything seemed to be normal,almost too normal. Phoebe's eyes were the first to snap open. She realized there was somebody on top of her,and it didn't take her much to figure out who it was.

"Halliwell"

"Eli,you alright?"

"A bit sore"

"You shielded me"

"Couldn't let you be hurt"

Their eyes met briefly communicating silently,but they snapped out of it at her sisters'cries.

"They took her,they took her"exclaimed Prue,as Piper questioned Leo about it,she sounded angry,and Piper rarely was.

She averted her gaze from her sisters and made to stand up,but she stopped when she saw blood on her shirt. She was sure the demon hadn't touched her. He hadn't,because Elisa had made sure of it.

"You're bleeding"

"It's nothing"she said,but Phoebe could see her gritting her teeth to hide her pain.

"Leo"

The whitelighter shuffled to them,thankful for the distraction as the venetian rolled off her to lie on the floor.

Phoebe didn't let go of her hand as Leo lay his above her stomach. The demon had run her through with an athame. She could remember how it had happened,even that it had hurt,but it hadn't mattered,he was about to get Phoebe,and she couldn't let it happen,so she had taken her choice. She felt the heat on her and knew she was healing,but it didn't fully register in her mind as much as her hand in that of the younger girl,holding tightly to each other.

Her breathing settled as no trace was left of her wound and she stood up helped by Phoebe and Leo to turn towards the two older sisters. Piper was pretty much panicking,pacing back and forth in the space in front of where Prue was sitting leaning on the not so good looking coffee table,not uttering a word. She looked detatched,and she was staring into the void. If she hadn't been breathing,and had her eyes open they could've all been fooled into the thought that she might be dead. Phoebe hadn't ever been more thankful to somebody who could read her mind so well,when she felt Elisa's hand slip into hers once again.

"What's wrong with her?"inquired Phoebe,as Piper quieted down and stopped to look at them.

Leo kneed by the oldest sister,and took a good look at her. He hadn't had a long time to practice as a doctor in his past life,but he had read,and he had met people in his many years as a whitelighter,and was pretty sure of what might be wrong with Prue.

"She's catatonic"


	34. I'll stand by you

It was all too quiet after the whitelighter spoke. His words seemed to wheigh on them like stones. According to him,she had gone catatonic,meaning she could totally hear them,even see them,but her mind was elsewhere,somewhere they could all imagine. To Piper and Phoebe it was a well known promise,one each of them had vowed and exchanged throughout the years. They knew the depth of that promise for Prue,the feeling of having to do anything so that they could've anything even if everybody else was gone. Even to them it felt like they had failed,but in a very different way. Piper couldn't do anything but feel as if she couldn't do a thing for anything of them. Just like Phoebe was enduring the thought of having failed her only younger sister. Sitting in that room without sharing it for the very first time in the last 4 almost 5 years was pure torture. Prue was too out of it to do anything she had been laid on her bed without uttering a single word. Leo,Piper,and Elisa were working with maps,the globe and all they could use to find Paige,but Phoebe was there,and she couldn't reach them upstairs. She thought of smoking,pheraps searching the liquors cabinet,but she didn't,nothing could help her at the moment,she didn't want her facade to drop. She wasn't even 12 and her life was already pretty screwed up. She stood up only God could know why,and she was so angry she could've torn her side of the room down. She was so angry she cursed her destiny,her not giving a fuck about anything,even her mother and her grams for leaving so soon,and leaving them scarred. So scarred that Prue was afraid to say I love you even to her own sisters from the fear they might drop dead at any moment. So scarred that Piper couldn't stand up for herself,and Paige had one great disease which could've taken her away when they less expected it. So scarred she felt the need to drink,smoke and go out with people just or almost as troubled as her. Somebody in between her reflexion had slipped into her room,and the space to her right on the bed (si abbasso),as that somebody sat by her side.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Phoebe looked at her side and spotted Elisa looking at her with knowing eyes.

"You're not alone"

"I feel so useless"she dared to utter under her breath.

"You'll be more if you stay in here"

"It will hurt more if I go up there and witness useless researches."

"Then you've already given up. Then you think it's already done for"

"She's 4 for Christ's sake"

"She's got enough power to take a few down,and she's four,and she's a whitelighter and a witch,at the same time. Phoebe your sister is no usual witch,she wasn't born to be usual. If there's somebody who can pull a good trick on them it's her. Sweetie,Paige wasn't even supposed to be born,but she's here. She's here,you're her big sister and you can't fail her,not now. You're her last chance,we're not going anywhere without you."

Phoebe could barely see through eyes full of tears. She just felt grateful for the girl now kneeing right in front of her. She let herself be hugged. For once she felt like she could do it with anybody else who wasn't her sisters,and it felt good,it felt right.

"How's it you always know what to say?"

Elisa paid her a smile,as the question came out sounding much more innocent than Phoebe would've liked it to.

"Because I've been there,I'm that everyday too. I've lost my mother already,and every person I let in,which is probably what Prue feels too,feels like more invitation for pain,but when I think about this family I've known for a few months and about just how amazing you're,I can't step aside and let every effort we made go to waste. If Paige matters to you,then she matters to me too."and without adding another word,the older girl hugged her once more.

"I love you"

"So you're not as afraid as Prue,mm?"

Phoebe looked at her wide eyed.

"Joking,I love you too."

Elisa stood up stretched,and helped her up too,linking arms with her.

"Can we go save your sister now?"

* * *

Elisa's speech seemed to have given back some confidence to Phoebe,as she passed it onto Piper and Leo. They had to find a way to help Prue back to her old self,and fast,and they needed to get Paige back. Leo suggested he could talk to the Elders to understand if there could be a way to find Paige,as scrying had done nothing. Meanwhile the three witches would've thought about getting Prue back.


	35. Slipping through my fingers

"I wanna try this one"

"Are you sure,Leo?"inquired Elisa.

They had been discussing over the plan to bring Prue back for half an hour,without having even slept at all. They had grabbed a couple of grams' old books,but so far they had come empty,that was why Leo had suggested a second idea,which actually seemed to be the best one at the moment. The whitelighter had suggested they should remind Prue of how that stregth had always helped her help everybody else,how she had always somehow known how to save them when they needed her. It had to be a shared experience,as Elisa recited the spell,to connect their minds without the necessity of having them inside of Prue's head and invide it,then they would've recited a second one to share their memories. So they had been debating about it for the last half hour,and now they had finally found the agreement. So the two middle sisters sat on the floor,right in front of the catatonic form of Prue and locked eyes with her. From right behind them they heard Elisa recite the spell to connect their minds,and they felt as if a (filo) were between them. Next came their own,and in a sort of trance they recited it. It was like turning off their minds,then turning them on again. They were still in the attic,but Elisa and Leo had disappeared and now it was just the three of them. The two's eyes snapped open,and after having taken a look at their surroundings,they turned around attracted by the voices,as they repositioned themselves to sit by their sister's side.

"Come here girls,all around me"

Phoebe smiled as she saw her younger self trying to get on the bed and closer to her mommie and the bundle she was holding.

"This is Paige. She's your sister,from now on you'll have to take care of her,make sure she's safe and happy,and help her achieve her dreams. Prue,Piper you know what I'm talking about,Phoebe I'm sure you'll make me proud,now it's your turn to protect somebody. Paige counts on you,on you teaching her all the things you know. I know you'll love her,always carry this moment in your heart,and for as long as you leave you shall not doubt in this bond."

They watched as their younger selves smiled,as 10 years old Piper kissed her lightly on her forehead,as Prue was whispering in baby Paige's ear,nobody yet knew what she had told her that day,but it had to be something precious as baby Paige smiled up at her eldest sister and grabbed her pinkie.

As sisters even scrapped knees were important,Phoebe could remember it. She had fallen straight on the concrete,and Paige being 3 couldn't stop,Phoebe was panicking. She remembered the pang in her heart when she realized that there would've been no mother to kiss their knees better. Or better she remembered how few it had lasted,as 16 years old Prue had come running down the steps of the door and straight into the courtyard,and sweeped little Paige in her arms,hugging her tightly. She saw again how Prue had rocked her back and forth,and kissed her knees better. They didn't have their mom anymore,but it didn't mean they shall feel alone.

In between the two memories something had slowly started to change,Prue seemed to be more focused on everything. Her eyes or body were yet to move,but she seemed to be paying attention to what she was seeing and hearing.

Piper and Phoebe had to make no effort,they needed those memories too. Of simple ice cream and movie days,and nights they had layd together in bed,even at the hospital,with Prue spooning them all,as if her arms were big enough to contain the world. A world they knew she would've liked to give them. Prue had always expected herself to do no less for her sisters.

Piper turned to look at Prue,into her blue-sky eyes.

"Listen up Prue cause I ll be giving this speech one,we already have motivators down here,you know my role is pretty much different,but you're never afraid of anything. Ever. Or at last you never showed it,I know you didn't because you wanted to be strong for us. But next time something happens please don't shut us down,we're all sisters. All the four of us."

Phoebe thought it couldn't have hurt to say her own piece of mind.

"Paige is not dead,but by doing this you're letting her be. Right about now we don't know where she might be,but before being witches we're sisters,and sisters always know,and I'm telling you,I can feel it in my heart...Paige is still there. She's waiting for us to come and get her,to come and help her,and we can't fail her,we can't give up on our little one,cause she never did on us"

They saw quite many flashes of memories passing in front of them,one after the other,rewinding like a tape,up till the moment when they had last seen Paige,then Prue's eyes snapped shut and open again,as she shook her head. The young woman looked up at them,and did something which was pretty unusual for Prue ever since their mother had died. She cried. She cried bitterly,and with heart breaking sobs,all the while apologizing,with apologies the other two didn't even want to hear.

"We need to go and get her. I won't give up on her"

"We thought so"

The attic shook,but the three held onto each other,as their eyes connected once more,and snapped fully open when they realized they were fully back,and Leo and Elisa were standing right behind them,where they had left them sometime,they didn't know much,ago.

"We were waiting for you,the Elders have found a way to get to the city".


	36. All that I have,all that I want

**Meanwhile...**

They walked through a long corridor. It was lit with old looking torches,and drawings of demons on the walls,but otherwise the old palace was totally bathed into darkness only receiving the light of the moon. Paige looked around herself as she tried to memorize the place she had just passed by,tough pretty unsettling. There weren't many windows,and those which were there were up high on the wall,nowhere near where she was. She tried to put up some resistance,but only received more pain in her right wrist from which she was being dragged by an ugly demon which she had definitely never seen. If only he could've let go...no she needed to do it herself. Quickly she yanked her arm out of his hand,and bolted towards the corridor they had just left. She tried to orb,but as she did a potion was thrown at her,and orbs formed a body again as she ended up on the floor. She tried to move,but she found that she couldn't. Her heart sped up and tears formed in her eyes,as the same demon loomed above her. Fire shot from her hands,and he drew a step back,the fire touched the other wall,and the torch,lighting a little fire in the hallway which burnt to non-existence the demon. She recovered and stood up,but three others came in,and she was overpowered. She couldn't move,and she didn't dare again,they wouldn't have hesitated to harm her,she knew. She knew enough now. But her heart was back to it's usual beating,tough she was trembling. In her mind she wished for her family. They always seemed to know how to fix the wrong. She was scared,but she wouldn't let them see it. If they had known,they would've had more fun. She needed to stay calm and figure out a new way to escape,and give her sisters,and her whole family time to find her,so they could've solved it all together.

Through all those passages they carried her,till they didn't come to a door. Inside there seemed to be the minds of the plan,it looked like a room ready for one big spell to evocate something which isn't supposed to be evocated. But she didn't voice her thoughts,she needed to keep quiet as much as she could. Lay low as they would say,she had already done enough as it was.

* * *

It had taken a bit,but the Elders had studied the situation,they had known very few at first,but apparently all the ruckus they had caused seemed to have worked. Several beings had come to the aid of the Elders,and as they had gained the position from a genius who had followingly been vanquished,they actually prepared to fight for real. It felt so much easier than it should've been,and it wasn't going to be,at all. Potions,spells,all they could do they did. Some witches and beings they had met in the past year had even come to help. They would've been their backup,watched their backs as they faught on the front. So when it was time a portal was drawn and they all came in,looking around for eventual trouble. All they saw was sand. Long and high dunes stratching for what seemed to be miles. The sisters sighed,it had never been easy. Nobody had said it would be easy,and they weren't gonna make it easy for those demons either. In truth to the sisters it all felt like a big trap. They hadn't been able to find the city up till now,and now all of a sudden they had,and the genius had seemed to be a tiny bit too eager to help.

The party walked and walked till it didn't come to an halt in front of the dune which was closest to a Palace. Zambor had been one very old city,and as so the whole village had been "into"the palace,to be protected by enemies. To the giant doors there were two demons,looking out for it.

Quiet and nice or loud and evil?


	37. Somewhere in between

Nothing to be said,nice and quiet didn't work,somehow they knew they were in there,and the guards knew. So they found themselves fighting right away. In luck they were,and they managed to take them out easily enough to slip in as odd sirens were blaring. To Phoebe they sounded like those of the police coming to get you,so she held more tightly Elisa's hand as they slipped into the corridors of the old castle. They were surrounded. Not exactly cornered,but pretty close to it. Fairies shot around them,and it would've been pretty fun,if they hadn't been in great danger,trying to save Paige who was in even worse danger than them. Elisa used her powers to gather the dust from the wall creating a vortex through the corridor. It blew around them,and they sat to the floor,trying to get closer to the demons. Some were warlocks,and were easily defeated,some had more fireball power. But it came to them like old news. The truly important ones were with Paige,with their youngest sister,with the youngest Halliwell. It was all soon flung into a darkness they knew,but this time they were advantaged as Eli created a sort of bridge above the demon blocking their path,to get them to the other side. They run onto it as if they had always done it,and got through. Prue,and Piper run straight towards the other hallway,but Phoebe halted and looked behind herself to shoot a smile at the older girl,Elisa beamed back. Between the fight and the hurry,Phoebe could've sworn she was urging her to go,and be careful,through a whisper,and then had nodded,with a sparkle in her green eyes. She was only brought back to reality,by an arm yanking her towards the way where they needed to be.

When they were on their own they slowed down,and locked at the spell to call a lost a witch,they had found in a old book of their grams' reversed and recited it,swapping the word with "sister". They felt the pull right away. They knew where she was,and they also knew they were waiting for them,for what they had.

The great doors were closed,but Prue used her TK to throw them open,and all the demons turned towards them. From the centre of the great room,decorated with old objects from the oriental world they heard a little squeal,and they knew where their little one was. Paige was tied to a just as ancient table,under which there was a pentacle. The pentacle they had faught for and against. The last piece with the circle and the last clove to it.

The one who was closest to Paige,red,tall,ugly as much as the others cut Paige's hand open,and blood started flowing into the pentacle,another one was positioning the empty books under every clove of the pentacle,at the centre the Grimoire.

They sprung into action,and all went to battle one,each. Prue,having the advantage of TK tried to keep the distance,and wear her demon down,before delivering the final blow. Piper,not being exactly skilled in the art of hand to hand,tried to dodge as much as she could,using her power to block the demon. Phoebe found herself face to face with the demon they had faced in Chicago,and knowing his power now,she did her best to try. In the advance Prue was still two steps further and ready to reach the pentacle. She could see and it looked no good. Paige's hand was bleeding badly by now,so she resorted to calling their only chance at saving her life right now,Leo.

The whitelighter orbed in and went straigth for Paige. No demon took on him,as he used bolts of lightenings to incenerite them. He held the youngest Halliwell in his arms,and put his healing hands on her. Soon she was as good as new. But the whole structure started to tremble. Again was this being to easy. Prue,Piper and Phoebe had just disposed of their enemies,and those who were left,all from different species were kneeling to the ground as if to great something,or rather someone.

All the girls turned around,and saw a light coming out of the centre of the table.

It blinded them. It was so intense they closed their eyes. The books flew scattered around the floor,or against the walls,raising dust,as the circle opened.


	38. Standing in the way

It stepped out of the enlarged(the pieces were middle sized but they enlarged touching the platform) circle and looked at them,snarling with dirty was wearing a big black cloack,the face white as chulck and eyes looking unseeing,but very much seeing them. Tall and very much threatening. The demon was also carrying a can made of solid oak,it hit the floor twice,and the old stone tiles parted,splitting a part of the pavement in two. The sisters all stepped back and huddled together. They grabbed hands and tried with the power of four spell,but it didn't even make it buldge. Again the demon split the tiles on the floor,and Prue tried to use her TK to hold it back. It didn't last long,but enough for Piper to run around him and step towards the books. They heard running from behind them and sure enough they spotted Elisa coming their way,and trying to help Piper. Paige tried to let the power build into her,and shot fire against the demon. It growled and shot fireballs of a different kind looking more like electricity right behind them. Only demons of the rarest kind could do that,as he destroyed the wall behind them. Stones showered on them,and some of the objects,like vases and statues fell from their pedestals,and shattered to the floor with the stones,they covered behind some columns. Phoebe had noticed inscription on the stone and asked Leo to read them. To the whitelighter made no sense,but he tried while the others distracted the demon who had meanwhile started going after it's own minions.

"It's latin"that much he knew and the writin seemed to be pretty normal.

"Five to one,four in the circle,set in the stone,twice the struggle"

The column they were behind exploded sending them spiraling in the air. They all fell on a pile on the floor but were quick to react and run behind the pedestal. From there Paige,Piper and Prue went on attacking him. While Eli,Phoebe and Leo were working on the inscription.

"We need to read it backwards"

"Why?"

"Once my mother met a demon who tried to steal all the spells from her. He read the spells backwards. We could try and do the same." She heard laughing then found herself with a handful of Phoebe in her arms,which she hugged back with a smile of her own. Leo looked at them and said.:"let's try". They did so and noticed the books had started to twitch. But it wasn't strong enough. The other girls reached them and the four sisters started reading the line backwards.

Once again there was lots of light in the room and when it dissipated tough the demon was still in the room,the books were all open to their first pages,and then started turning and turning and each page filling up again with it's very own spells.

The demon screamed a dishuman scream as it's skin started to peal. He looked at them,and sent new fireballs their way. This time he used the stick to create water and he twirled it around it's head before it came crashing down on them,but before it could hit a long streak of fire appeared in front of them. It wasn't turned off by the water,if not it seemed to be fighting it. Earth lurked it's way like a slithering snake towards the monster they were facing. The fire seemed to struggle a bit,but then It gave a powerful push and the demon started burning right in front of them. It didn't vanquish like any normal demon,but it kept on burning,skin now sizzling and looking even worse than before. They water came crashing down on him,and the whole room was filled with entirely submerged they managed to swim back up. Elisa instead swam the other way,back down,and firmly touched the tile,as she used her power to dry the water which crumbled to dust.

"Say it again,read it again"

The four sisters read it again,and the stones started moving,one of the cloves merged with the circle before turning into their sign,the sign Phoebe had first seen when she had read the book of shadows.

Light like fire came out of it and struck the demon,as they kept on reading.

Again he screamed and snarled,and growled,then the last book on the pedestal seemed to explode,as the wind let the dust settle.


	39. In and out

The last explosion sent two separated books on the floor,as if they had just parted. The girls started reciting the power of four spell,and the demon reached towards them,but didn't manage to do anything he could only growl madly as light came out of him,as if a supernova were bursting. They kept on going,and going,till there wasn't one last lightening and the demon bursted into different streaks of something which came out of him,each one now rapresenting the elements,and seemed to crawl into their respective books,before the books themselves shut and with that he became dust. Prue moved it's dust around and sent it back into the pedestal which had split open,and shut it. Then they all surrounded it,holding hands,and once more recited their spell. Orbs of light raised above them to create their seal,and laid on the newly made one in the stone. The pavement parted and the jumped aside,as the whole structure was swallowed by it. There was a small earthquake,and they all stood up,as the walls shook.

"It's gonna be collapsing in a bit"

The girls sprung into action and recollected the five books,tough Leo asked them to leave there the last one stating it was better to leave it there.

"It's better this way,let's get out of here"

They run out of the door they had used to come in and back into the almost endless hallways of the castle. They could hear things starting to fall apart.

"C'mon the sooner we get out the better"

They sped up and met the companions who had helped them distract the others along the way.

It was at this point that they heard rumbling,and the room they had been in,collapsed behind a few meters behind them. Some debris rained on them,but they were far enough to not be affected by it. They were unscathed,but they needed to find their way back out. All the demons had been destroyed,and very few had escaped. If they knew what was good for them they wouldn't have come back. The pieces were no more,they had the books and they could keep them safe. Leo had orbed them to safety.

All the beings were either orbed away or went on their own,but the six of them actually came out of the front door and run some meters away. The rest of the building seemed to be fairly intact,so they had deemed it okay to orb away even from the outside. It felt a tiny bit odd looking at it,then.

It looked giant,and yet they had just destroyed a part of it. They had destroyed the treath,they had managed. It felt satisfacting,but also bittersweet. They had lost many on the way,but they had also found. They had found love,friendship,new powers,God knew what else. They had found they were closer than before.

It was with these thoughts they walked a few steps back,and called up the Elders to be helped. The place needed to be destroyed for good and completely at that. They needed to make sure that nobody else could've ever tried to do what the brotherhood of Zambor had done. They needed to bury that chapter of black magic which could've stained and ruined the world forever. It was reward to their efforts. They were worn down,they needed rest,rest they hadn't had in ages,and maybe they could've finally gotten some,tough they knew that their destiny was always in there they were sure they could've faced anything.


	40. The woman in the mirror

With the demon defeated,the girls went back home. The Elders would've taken over the job to destroy the place,and once again they had won. The frenzy of the latest days had worn them down,hence why all the sisters were sitting again in a hospital room. They were checking Paige out after a few months and they just wanted to be careful. Her disease seemed to have gotten no worse,so no need for such a big thing as a transplant yet,but the wanted to be sure. Prue could've even been panicking for all she knew,but their victory had brought back some peace,and the disease was under control. She looked aside from where she was sitting,listening to Paige's recalling of their latest adventure for the uptenth time,and was glad to see Piper truly smiling at Leo,and Phoebe and Elisa sitting cross legged on the floor without a care in the world going about the most famous songs of the moment.

Within some weeks Paige was out and Graduation morning came for Prue.

She reckoned she had never seen such a sunny day ever since they had lost Grams. She sat on the doorstep wearing her toga,and really thought about the year they had just been through. It would've been enough to make everybody go crazy,and she was still wondering how she hadn't. Maybe it had been her taking upon such a big role in her sisters' lives,maybe it had been Piper's good heart,and Leo's wisdom. Or Phoebe's strength,and Eli's braveness. Maybe little Paige with her strive to live. Maybe they had all gotten her through as she reasoned there was no her without them. No functioning without their being in her life. There was no hurry to see what the future had in store for them,but if anybody had asked her she knew they could've now gotten through everything.

It was a short lived silence as she stood up and peered through the half open door. Phoebe was messily putting shoes on jumping on one foot. Piper was coming probably from the kitchen and doing her hair almost flipping out with the tangled mass they were,as Leo laughed from aside,with Paige. Elisa was runnin towards the door at lightening speed and hugged Phoebe as she came in.

Prue instead only rolled her eyes at her family's antics.

No,she wouldn't have had it any other way.

**And here we're to the last chapter of "The treasure". I'd like to thank you all for following,and also those who will be reading. It seems like the girls might have finally found some balance in their lives,but is it gonna last?Stay tuned and we'll soon find out. **

**Coming up:"Landslide". **

**xoxo Thetimeinbetween.**


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Charmed, Family, Hurt-Comfort