Eight

[Astral Vision]

I have had this fanfic up on ff.net for a little while, and I thought I'd post it here too. Eight is the start of a rewrite of the dreadful season eight. I am splitting the first chapter into four posts to make it simpler to read, but each chapter (each four posts on this site) is the same as one episode. I hope you all enjoy. Please don't hesitate to post on this thread with your opinions. Thank you!

Here's a contents of links that will take you straight to each episode:
EPISODE ONE: Mostly Charmless (Part One); EPISODE TWO: Mostly Charmless (Part Two); EPISODE THREE: Grey Area; EPISODE FOUR: CSI: P3; EPISODE FIVE: Grave Matthews; EPISODE SIX: Pieces of Mind; EPISODE SEVEN: Disorder of the Phoenix

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Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, or any of its characters.

A/N: The whole premise of this fan fiction is to completely rewrite season eight. Everything that happened from the very beginning of season one through to the very end of season seven has happened. If Billie does make an appearance in this season rewrite, she will only be an one episode one-off innocent. Also, Leo will not be frozen and taken away; Coop and Henry will still be introduced in season eight, but the way that Phoebe and Paige meet them will be different; and the whole story arc for this season has nothing to do with an ultimate power. Each chapter is a full 'episode' - sorry about the length, but it's easier to do this way. With the aftermath of the season seven finale, I thought that the season eight premiere would have been better off as a two parter, so here it is...

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Mostly Charmless (Part One)

June 28th 2005

A teenage boy and his father were running through a tunnel in the Underworld. It was dim and silent – a little too silent. They came to a stop at a dead end. The father turned around to check that no demons had spotted them. They were still alone.

Slowly the father turned back to his son and nodded. The teenage boy took a deep breath and stared at the earthen wall. Suddenly a wooden door appeared out of nowhere in the wall. Taking a deep breath, the father opened it and entered. The teenage boy followed. As they shut the door behind them, the teenage boy squinted at the door, causing it to disappear and be replaced with wall again.

They had entered an enclosed cavern. It was lit by torches and filled with demons. None of the demons had spotted the two newcomers as the demons were busy. Many of the demons were using their powers to throw energy and fireballs at the ceiling of the cavern. Some were shovelling any dirt, debris, and dust that fell from the ceiling into wheelbarrows. Others were shimmering out of the cavern with filled wheelbarrows, while other demons were shimmering into the cavern with empty wheelbarrows. One demon was standing at the top of some hand crafted stone steps that led up to the ceiling. The demon was blasting the ceiling with energy balls from a close range. It was obvious that the demons were up to something – whatever they were after was above them.

Suddenly a demon flamed into the cavern. He was upper level, and most likely the leader. This caught the attention of every demon, the father, and the teenage boy. Every demon stopped what they were doing and turned to face the lead demon. The demons left their positions and culminated into a crowd. The father and the teenage boy tried to fit in amongst the crowd of demons. They did not want to stand out.

The flare of the torches reflected in the lead demon's menacing green eyes as he observed the state of the ceiling.

'Who was in charge while I was gone?' asked the lead demon. His voice was quiet but threatening at the same time.

Slowly a tough looking demon with a confident expression stepped forward. With a quick bow, he said, 'I was, Xalinth.'

The lead demon, Xalinth, clicked his fingers and the confident, tough looking demon burst into flames before disintegrating into ash. This act resulted in a low murmuring among the crowd.

'Silence!' snapped Xalinth. Once the crowd had quietened down, Xalinth continued. 'I left for a little while, because I had to deal with the disarray that has evolved in the Underworld since Zankou's demise. I left to seek some order amongst the upper level demons. I left expecting you all to have completed this work by the time I came back. You are not finished. Would anyone care to step forward and explain?'

There was absolute silence amongst the crowd as demons exchanged nervous glances. No one wanted to step forward. No one wanted to meet the same fate as the demon that Xalinth had vanquished with a snap of his fingers.

The father and the teenage boy exchanged looks. With a slight nod from his father, the teenage boy knew this was the signal that told him it was time for them to start their attack. Simultaneously, both father and son removed athames from their pockets.

Xalinth began to pace in front of his crowd of demons. He was becoming impatient in his wait for an answer.

'If no one steps forward, I will be forced to vanquish you all–' Xalinth paused as one of the demons in the crowd went up in flames. The lead demon knew that he had not vanquished that demon, so who had?

Almost like a chain reaction, demons, one by one, from different sides of the crowd began to go up in flames as they were vanquished. Terrified demons began to shimmer out, too anxious about what was going on to stay and find out.

Soon so few demons were left that it became obvious to the remaining demons and Xalinth who the source of the vanquishes were. The father and teenage boy suddenly found themselves having to dodge energy and fireballs as they continued to attack.

As the teenage boy ducked out of the way of the umpteenth fireball and impaled a demon with his athame, he heard an anguished shout. The teenage boy turned around to see his father laying stationary on the ground. He was bleeding. The only other demon left in the cavern was Xalinth, who – with an energy ball forming in his hand – was approaching the father.

The teenage boy hurled his athame in the direction of Xalinth. The energy ball extinguished from Xalinth's hand allowing him to catch the athame by the tip. Xalinth turned to face the teenage boy, smirking.

'You thought you and your father could defeat me?' sneered Xalinth. 'The Charmed Ones were the only ones that would have been powerful enough to do that – and they are dead.'

The teenage boy did not reply. His gaze was continually shifting between Xalinth, his father, and a nearby wheelbarrow.

'There is no way out,' said Xalinth, slowly advancing on the teenage boy. 'Your father will be dead soon and you will follow him…'

The teenage boy grabbed a wheelbarrow and pushed it towards Xalinth. This hardly fazed Xalinth. He threw the wheelbarrow against a wall, causing dirt to rain down from the ceiling.

'You cannot stop me…' said Xalinth, continuing to walk towards the teenage boy. 'No one can.'

The teenage boy was continually stepping backwards until he hit a wall. The teenage boy gulped. Xalinth pressed the athame up against the teenage boy's chest.

'Shall I kill you in the same manner that you decided to kill my minions?' asked Xalinth rhetorically.

The teenage boy tried not to look Xalinth in the eyes. Instead the teenage boy looked at the ground. Suddenly the teenage boy had an idea. Focusing on the ground beneath Xalinth's feet, a wooden door suddenly appeared. Xalinth's weight caused the door to fall open, and gravity did its part in allowing Xalinth to fall through. As soon as Xanith had fallen through, the teenage boy made sure that the door disappeared from the ground.

The teenage boy ran over to his father and checked his pulse. The teenage boy breathed a sigh of relief. His father still had a pulse – it was extremely weak, but it was existent. The teenage boy picked up his father, managing to take the weight on his back. Slowly the teenage boy ascended the shoddily built stone steps.

When he reached the ceiling, he squinted at the ceiling, causing a wooden hatch to appear. Pushing the hatch open, the teenage boy pushed his unconscious father onto the unseen floor above. Now alone in the cavern, the teenage boy had one last look around before climbing up through the hatch into whatever lay above.

The teenage boy looked at his surroundings as he closed the hatch – not bothering to make it disappear. The place where he found himself standing looked like it had been caught in the midst of an explosion. Beams littered the ground and soot covered everything. At the end of the room were some wooden steps that were charred but looked stable enough to climb. Hoisting his father back onto his back, the teenage boy ascended the wooden steps.

The teenage boy entered what appeared to be a kitchen. It did not look like the kitchen had been used for a while. He was in someone's house. Still carrying his unconscious father, the teenage boy left the kitchen through some doors. He quickly located the front door. The house was really quite extravagant on the inside.

The teenage boy opened the front door, exited, and shut the front door. He descended the steps and placed his unconscious father on the ground as he reached the pavement. The teenage boy checked his father's pulse. The teenage boy went pale as he could feel no pulse. His father had not survived.

Trying to hold back his tears, the teenage boy took one last look back at the house that the demons were trying to break through to from their cavern: the pink Victorian manor.

...

June 29th 2005

Holding the Bay Mirror newspaper open to the Obituaries page, a brunette haired woman read aloud:

'A memorial service will be held for three brave sisters: Piper Halliwell, Phoebe Halliwell, and Paige Matthews. The service is being held at –'

'Piper! Please shut up! I have a headache!'

The brunette – who was Piper still under her magical disguise – put the newspaper down, annoyed at the interruption. She was sitting on the edge of a double bed in a dingy hotel room. She glared at a red haired woman who was laying on a sofa with a damp cloth on her forehead.

'I thought you might be interested in hearing our obituaries, Paige,' said Piper.

The red haired woman – who was Paige still under her magical disguise – slowly sat up, holding the damp cloth to her forehead, as she looked over at Piper.

'You know what, Piper? I really don't give a damn about that! Do you want to know why? It is because we are not dead!' moaned Paige, irritably.

Piper sighed. 'Paige, I thought you would be curious over how many people miss you…'

Paige shook her head and snapped sarcastically, 'How can you even suggest that, Piper? We have been presumed dead for over a month now. The money that we have is running low and we have no idea what we will do when that runs out!'

Piper let out another sigh. 'Paige, it would have looked suspicious if I had emptied our bank accounts just before our deaths… I had to be inconspicuous…'

'And where has that led us, Piper? The four of us are currently sharing one dingy hotel room, eating take outs every day! Do we even have a plan of what we are going to do when the money runs out? I mean, what were we thinking when we decided to fake our deaths?' moaned Paige.

Piper furrowed her brow, becoming extremely sombre. 'We were thinking: We need to defeat Zankou before he kills us and takes control of the Nexus.'

'Well… yeah…' said Paige, hesitating as she tried to come up with a counter to Piper's words. 'Couldn't we have come up with a different plan to this?'

Piper narrowed her eyes. 'I didn't hear you suggesting anything over a month ago when we were trying to come up with ways to defeat Zankou!'

Paige shrugged. 'Well… Faking our deaths seemed like a good idea at the time…'

The debate fizzled out as Piper returned to reading the newspaper and Paige lay back down on the sofa.

A few minutes later a key was heard turning in the door lock. The door opened to reveal a blonde haired woman, holding a paper bag in one hand and a newspaper in the other. A brunette haired man, holding a couple of pizza boxes, entered the room too.

'Phoebe!' said Paige, sitting up. 'Do you have my paracetamols?'

The blonde haired woman – who was Phoebe still under her magical disguise – nodded and passed Paige the paper bag. Piper looked at the brunette haired man and frowned.

'Are we really going to have take away pizza for dinner again, Leo?' Piper asked unhappily.

The brunette haired man – who was Leo still under his magical disguise – placed the two pizza boxes on the table before sitting on the bed next to Piper.

'Money is getting tight,' said Leo as way of explanation.

Everyone took a slice of pizza and began to eat in silence. Phoebe lay on her front on the floor with the newspaper she had bought open in front of her. She was flicking through the newspaper while eating her slice of pizza. Suddenly Phoebe gasped, dropping the slice of pizza onto the floor. All eyes turned to Phoebe.

'Did you just have a premonition?' Piper asked Phoebe.

'You have not had a premonition since we faked our deaths… Does that mean the Elders have found us?' said Paige.

'Not all of Phoebe's premonitions are sent by the Elders… The Elders only send premonitions concerning innocents…' said Leo.

Phoebe still said nothing. Piper, Paige, and Leo exchanged worried looks.

'Phoebe?' said Piper, concerned.

Phoebe held her hand up, gesturing for Piper to be quiet. That was when Piper, Paige, and Leo realised that Phoebe had not had a premonition at all. Something in the newspaper had caught her attention and she was concentrating on reading it.

'Phoebe!' snapped Piper.

Paige jumped off the sofa and peered over Phoebe's shoulder at the page Phoebe was reading.

Paige gasped. 'Piper, turn your newspaper to page twenty four!'

'What is it?' asked Piper. 'My newspaper won't be any use. Mine is yesterday's copy. I think Phoebe has today's copy.'

Piper knelt down onto the floor so as she could see the page. She gasped as soon as she saw the photograph for the article. Piper pulled Leo onto the floor so as he could see the newspaper too.

The article's photograph consisted of Victor Bennett being escorted out of a police car in handcuffs. The headline read 'Basement Blast Blamed on Bennett.' Below that the subheading read 'Bennett has become the prime suspect in the deaths of his two daughters and their half sister.'

'Oh… This sounds bad,' said Piper, shocked, before she had even gotten into the main article.

Phoebe turned to look at Piper, Paige, and Leo.

'I just finished reading the article. It is worse than bad,' said Phoebe unenthusiastically.

'Shush, we are reading,' was the joint reply from Piper, Paige, and Leo, who now had their eyes glued to the article.

'Victor Bennett, 56, the father of two of the basement blast victims, has become the main suspect in the ongoing investigation fronted by Detective Gordon Riley, 38, and Inspector David Sanders, 32.

Over a month ago, May 22nd, there was an explosion within 1329 Prescott Street. Police were already on site for reasons that they still refuse to divulge. The source of the explosion was found to have originated from the basement. No bodies were found and although the investigating officer at that time – Agent Keyes, who was dropped from the case two weeks later – stated that he had seen the three victims – Piper Halliwell, 31, Phoebe Halliwell (popularly known by this paper and its reader as Ask Phoebe), 29, and Paige Matthews, 27 – within the manor moments before the blast, they were reported missing. As the bodies have not yet been found – dead or alive – it is assumed that they are still filed as missing or presumed dead. Leo Wyatt, 31, the husband of Piper Halliwell, was last seen on the day of the explosion. The police have searched for him, but he seems to have gone missing.

At first, it was seen as a lucky coincidence that Bennett happened to be babysitting Piper Halliwell's two children at the time – Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, 2, and Christopher Perry Halliwell, 1. However, after further investigation, police have begun to suspect that this was all pre-planned.

Bennett was found in possession of the deeds to 1329 Prescott Street (the site of the blast) and P3 (Piper Halliwell's club). Information from the bank confirms that the said Halliwell made this decision only hours before she went missing. Other clues such as the $1000 that left the joint bank account of the three victims hours before the blast also suggest that something was planned.

Bennett was arrested yesterday morning and taken to the police station for questioning while his two grandsons were taken to South Bay Social Services. However with little evidence supporting their theories that Bennett has information regarding this, Detective Riley and Inspector Sanders were forced to release Bennett from custody in the early hours of this morning. His two grandsons have been returned to his care.

Tomorrow, Bennett will be holding a memorial service for his two daughters and their half sister. Although his name has been cleared, it has been confirmed that Detective Riley will be attending the memorial service on official matters.'

Piper, Paige, and Leo finished reading the article. They turned to face Phoebe.

'This is really bad,' Piper stated sombrely.

'They don't have any evidence against Dad,' said Phoebe, trying to think of the bright side. 'He is not lying to them in the interrogation room, because he thinks we are dead. He –'

'What?' said a shocked Paige, standing up. 'How could you not have told him yet? He is your dad!'

Piper, Phoebe, and Leo got to their feet. Phoebe had a guilty expression on her face, but Piper just shook her head angrily.

'What do you expect us to do?' asked Piper. 'Knock on the door and say to him, 'Hi. I know we don't look like ourselves at the moment, but it's us. We are back. We never died.' That seems a little insensitive.'

'Well, of course it would, considering you have left it over a month!' said Paige, turning away from her sisters to avoid eye contact with them.

'Paige! The police are watching him! They have suspicions about us! Possible magical exposure suspicions! If three women turn up on his doorstep, they might use that as proof to expose us!' said Piper stubbornly.

'That is the worst excuse possible, Piper. There are many ways that you could have gone to see your dad without the police knowing,' said Paige. 'I thought you were all about family…'

Phoebe let out a short laugh. Paige turned around to face her. Phoebe no longer had a guilty expression. She was shaking her head.

'Paige, how can you talk to Piper like that? How can you be one to talk about that? When was the last time you decided to call Sam, huh?' Phoebe paused, watching Paige's expression change to one of guilt. 'Exactly my point.'

'Paige, I agree with your sisters,' Leo put in.

'Figures,' mumbled Paige.

'No. Not because of the fact that Piper is my wife,' said Leo. 'I agree with them because we are trying to stay below the radar. If we start visiting family – even under our disguises – people will begin to notice and wonder. I am not just talking about the police. I am also referring to the good magical community, as well as evil.'

Paige sighed, giving up with the argument, as she dropped back onto the sofa. She would have continued to argue for longer, but her head was killing her. Phoebe noticed Paige's discomfort.

'Are the paracetamols not working?' asked Phoebe. All anger was gone from her voice, replaced with concern.

Paige shook her head. 'I still have a headache and the damn whitelighter ringing keeps going on and on and on and on and on and o–'

'We get the point, Paige,' said Piper, smiling gently to show that she was trying not to start another argument.

'Sorry,' said Paige. 'I guess I have been a little on edge recently, because it won't stop.'

'It will only stop after you have answered the calls of your charges,' said Leo.

'The Elders don't even know we are alive,' Piper pointed out. 'How can they still be sending Paige charges, Leo?'

'Shouldn't her charges have been reassigned?' asked Phoebe.

Leo nodded. 'I would have thought so.'

'I thought they had been reassigned. The ringing only started up again a few days ago,' said Paige. 'I think I have somehow been assigned a new charge.'

'How though? Why would the Elders..?' Piper trailed off as she turned to Leo for an explanation.

'The Elders don't assign every charge. Sometimes a charge connects to a whitelighter by themselves. It's called the latent charge effect. The ringing won't go away until you answer the call,' explained Leo.

'Well, if it is just one charge… maybe I should…' mumbled Paige.

'Don't answer them, Paige,' said Phoebe. 'We want to live a magic-free life, remember?'

'We haven't been attacked by a demon since our faked deaths. We have not even been found by the Elders yet,' continued Piper. 'As long as we avoid using our magic – both witch and whitelighter abilities – we will stay under the radar.'

Paige sighed. 'That's easy for you to say…' Paige stood up. 'I need some fresh air.' With those words, Paige exited the hotel room.

Phoebe knelt back onto the floor to pick up the slice of pizza she had dropped.

'Do you think this is still okay to eat?' Phoebe asked Piper and Leo.

Piper and Leo did not reply. Their eyes wandered over to a cockroach that was crawling across the carpet in the far corner of the room. Phoebe followed their gaze and took the cockroach as the answer. Phoebe dropped the pizza slice into the bin.

...

[Astral Vision]

Paige was walking along a street, not paying any attention to where she was going. The sun had set on San Francisco. It was quite late into the evening. Paige looked up and immediately recognised where she had unintentionally walked to: P3.

Paige had not been completely honest with her sisters. They thought that her main reason for moaning about their new lives was because she was finding it hard to ignore her whitelighter duties. However, Paige also felt homesick. She had lived at the manor nowhere near as long as Piper and Phoebe, but Paige missed being there. Paige also missed hanging out at P3 in the evenings.

Paige found herself walking into P3. There was no bouncer at the door and the club was not very full. No live band was playing. Instead songs were being blasted through the speakers of a stereo. By the looks of it, the club was not doing very well without Piper.

Paige approached the bar and sat on a bar stool. She held her head in her hands as it began to pound again.

'Maybe going to a noisy club with a headache was not such a good idea,' Paige muttered to herself.

'Can I see an I.D.?'

Paige looked up. The bartender was staring directly at Paige, waiting for her response.

'My – My I.D.?' said Paige, puzzled. She did not realise her disguise made her look younger than twenty one.

'Yes, can I see it?' asked the bartender.

'Don't worry. I don't drink alcohol, so I won't be ordering any,' Paige reassured him. That was the truth, but she also suddenly realised that due to their fake identities, she and her sisters had no I.D.

'That doesn't matter,' said the bartender. 'The new owner said that he does not want to get into trouble. So anyone below twenty one is not allowed in the club.'

'Do I look under twenty one to you?' said Paige, annoyed.

'Show me your I.D. then,' said the bartender.

'I don't have it on me…' said Paige quietly.

'Then I will have to ask you to leave,' said the bartender.

Paige frowned angrily. 'No. No! I am not leaving! I deserve to sit in here as much as anyone else does!'

The bartender shook his head. He looked behind Paige and shouted across the room: 'Ray! I need you to escort someone out of here!'

Paige turned around in her seat to see a big, bulky man – presumably Ray, the club's bouncer – approaching the bar.

'Hey Ray. Could you show this young lady the way out?' the bartender asked Ray.

Ray nodded and then turned to Paige. 'Follow me.'

Paige shook her head. 'No!'

'We reserve the rights to refuse entry to anyone. We could get the cops involved if you would prefer,' said Ray.

Paige sighed. If the police got involved then she would definitely have a problem with her lack of I.D. and lack of real identity. Paige stood up and followed Ray to the back door.

'Do I not get to leave via the entrance?' asked Paige grumpily.

'Look, just leave and come back with I.D.,' said Ray, closing the door on Paige.

Paige turned away from the door. Her headache suddenly reached a peak, causing her to lose her balance. Paige fell to the floor in agony. She opened her eyes to notice that she had fallen onto someone's feet. Someone was standing, looking down at her.

'Please don't vomit on my shoes, Paige.'

Slowly, Paige got to her feet to face the person who had uttered those words. Recognising him immediately, Paige stepped back a little.

'What are you doing here, Sam?' asked Paige.

...

June 30th 2005

Piper was sitting up on the double bed. Phoebe was sitting on top of a makeshift bed that they had put on the floor. The sound of water running – a shower – in the adjoining bathroom was audible. The alarm clock in the room read '01:08'.

'What are we doing here, Piper?' Phoebe sighed dejectedly.

Ignoring Phoebe's melodramatic question, Piper asked, 'How long do you think it will be before Paige comes back?'

'Relax, Piper. She needs a chance to think about things,' said Phoebe. 'She is a grown up. She can do whatever she wants.'

'I know, but… I am worried… With the way things have been recently…' said Piper.

Phoebe sighed. 'Yeah. You would have thought that a life without the Elders and demons would be great.'

'I just cannot see that as a huge positive at the moment, because… Paige was right. It is all about family and I have not spoken to or seen Wyatt or Chris for over a month. Plus Dad does not know that we are alive,' said Piper.

'Piper, are you suggesting we attend the memorial service tomorrow?' asked Phoebe.

Piper frowned. 'Do you think it's wrong to crash our own funeral?'

Phoebe shrugged. 'You will get to see Wyatt and Chris… and Dad. We can tell him the truth while we are there. You know, let him know we are fine.'

A tap was heard being turned and the sound of running water in the bathroom stopped.

'What about the things Leo said though? As soon as we do that, the Elders and demons are sure to figure out we are still around, whether we wander around in disguise or not,' said Piper.

'As long as the police do not find out, I don't care,' said Phoebe. 'I want to see my nephews and speak to Dad.'

Piper nodded. 'Wyatt, Chris, and Dad.'

The bathroom door opened and Leo walked out wearing pyjama bottoms. He noticed Piper and Phoebe's cheerful expressions straight away.

'What did the two of you decide while I was out of the room?' asked Leo.

'For an ex-whitelighter, you sure still have that instinctive thing down,' laughed Phoebe weakly.

Leo sat down on the bed next to Piper waiting for a proper response to his question.

'Leo,' said Piper, taking his hand. 'We need to go clothes shopping in the morning.'

Leo looked puzzled. 'Why?'

'Well, I don't fancy turning up to my own funeral in a t-shirt and ripped jeans,' said Phoebe, cluing onto what Piper meant.

Leo's jaw dropped.

...

Sam and Paige were sitting at a table in an apartment building. Sam had orbed them there so as they could have a private chat indoors.

'How did you know it was me?' asked Paige, breaking the silence that had been maintained since they had arrived at the apartment.

'That is how you want to start our reunion, Paige?' asked Sam.

'Yes, Sam,' said Paige.

Sam sighed. 'Will I ever earn the chance to be called dad?'

'I already had a dad. Remember our chat when you last saw me, three years ago?' said Paige.

'Paige, I am sorry for not visiting since, but you have to understand that the Elders have kept me extremely busy with charges and I don't want to go through the pain of losing another…' Sam trailed off.

Paige put her hand onto Sam's hand. He looked at his daughter.

'It's okay,' said Paige. 'I just… I don't know… It would be nice if you visited every now and then…'

Sam smiled weakly. Paige took her hand off Sam's hand and stood up.

'So, how did you know it was me?' repeated Paige.

Sam stood up. 'Paige, you are my daughter. The news has spread throughout the magical community that the Charmed Ones are dead. I sensed for you and knew you were still alive. I was content with knowing that you were safe. Who am I to rant about staying off the Elders' radar and trying to hide from magic?'

'Then why did you decide to look for me today? Albeit, it was very much a déjà vu moment to the state that I found you in when I first met you,' said Paige, blushing as she suddenly understood Sam's comment about not vomiting on his shoes – the very act that he had done to her Jimmy Choos three years earlier.

'I decided to look for you today, because I sensed that something was wrong,' said Sam.

'Something's wrong with me?' said Paige, perplexed. 'What are you trying to insinuate?'

'Paige, you are not drunk… yet you managed to lose your balance and fall to the floor right in front of me,' Sam pointed out.

Paige sighed. 'That is only because of a stupid headache caused by me ignoring this constant ringing in my head.'

Sam furrowed his brow. 'The Elders think you are dead. You shouldn't have a charge, unless…'

'I have automatically been assigned the charge? Leo said something like that,' said Paige.

Sam beckoned for Paige to sit back down on the chair, so she did. Sam sat down on the chair opposite.

'Paige, if you want the ringing to stop, you have to go to your charge,' said Sam. 'Or at least start by sensing for their whereabouts… That will quell the headache and ringing for now…'

'I cannot use my powers. The Elders will be able to find me. If they find me, they find my sisters. That is not fair on them,' Paige said.

'I would be a hypocrite if I asked you to answer your charge's call,' said Sam.

'Oh great. You're the perfect person to give me advice on being a whitelighter,' said Paige sarcastically.

'Well, despite your tone and your reasoning, I might just have some good advice,' said Sam. 'Go to your charge. I will come with. Maybe my orbing will offset any chances of your power use being tracked.'

Paige sighed. 'I don't want to go to my charge though.'

Sam nodded. 'As soon as we have helped this charge of yours, I can help to make sure that the Elders do not find you or your sisters.'

'Don't you understand? I don't want to help–' Paige paused. 'Wait, I can help the charge, not get found out, and have the ringing stop?'

Sam nodded. 'With my help, yes.'

Paige smiled. 'It's nice having a father that's an expert at staying below the radar.'

...

The teenage boy found himself walking along Prescott Street. It was the early hours of the morning and it was extremely dark out. The teenage boy could tell that he had come to a stop directly outside the abandoned pink Victorian manor even though it was silhouetted in the darkness.

The teenage boy could feel tears forming in his eyes. He wiped his eyes dry before walking up the manor steps. He stopped on the porch. It was no surprise to him that the front door was locked. He squinted at the wall next to the door. On that bit of wall, a wooden door appeared. The teenage boy pushed it open, entering the manor. As the teenage boy pushed it shut, he made it disappear, so as the wall could reform behind him.

The teenage boy found the staircase that led upstairs. He walked up the stairs until he came to a stop on the upper landing. All of the doors on the upper landing were shut. The teenage boy was about to enter one of the rooms when he noticed another staircase – the one that led to the attic.

Slowly the teenage boy made his way up the steps. He pushed against the attic door and it creaked open. He entered the attic. Moonlight poured in through one of the windows, allowing the teenage boy to see the contents of the attic. The walls of the attic were cluttered with antique furniture and to one side sat a sofa. In the middle of the attic stood a stand. However there was no book placed on top of it.

The teenage boy approached the empty stand. He ran his hand across the top of it. Suddenly, in the corner of his eye, the teenage boy saw blue and white orbs coalescing. The blue and white orbs disappeared to reveal Paige. She was shocked to see where she was – the attic in the manor.

'Hey!' Paige shouted angrily at the teenage boy. 'What are you doing in this house?'

Paige was momentarily distracted by blue and white orbs forming in the corner of the room as Sam appeared. The teenage boy took this chance to make a run for it.

'Hey! Wait!' shouted Paige, running after him.

The teenage boy reached the upper landing and continued down the next staircase until he was in the moonlit foyer. He was about to open the front door of the manor when Sam orbed in between him and the door. The teenage boy scowled. He turned around and noticed Paige standing at the bottom of the steps.

The teenage boy ran into the living room. Paige and Sam followed him. As far as they knew, he had no way out from the living room. Paige's jaw dropped in shock as she saw the teenage boy exit through a wooden door that happened to be in their living room wall. The wooden door led straight outside. As the wooden door closed, it disappeared, turning back into an area of the living room wall.

'Who is that kid?' muttered Paige, slumping onto the living room sofa. She was partially happy to be back in the manor, but she knew she could not stay for long.

'It looks like your charge is a witch,' said Sam. 'I wonder why he was here.'

'I guess we should go and ask him,' said Paige, sighing as she stood back up.

Sam shook his head. 'You don't have to. Paige, you answered the call. That is all you had to do. Although that kid is still your charge, unless he specifically calls for you, you won't get that ringing in your head. We need to get you out of here if you truly want to stay under the radar.'

Paige sighed. 'I guess you are right…'

'Do you need a lift back to wherever you have been staying?' asked Sam.

Paige shook her head. 'Don't worry. I don't mind orbing.'

'I thought you want to stay under the radar,' Sam pointed out.

Paige shrugged. 'That was until I found my new charge snooping around my former place of residence.'

With those words, Paige orbed back to the hotel room.

...

Piper and Leo were fast asleep in the double bed and Phoebe was curled up asleep on her makeshift bed. The alarm clock in the room read '03:27'.

The sudden burst of bright blue and white lights in the hotel room caused the hotel room occupants to wake up startled.

'Oh no! They have found us!' shouted Phoebe, half in a daze from being woken up. Phoebe threw a sock at the figure that had orbed in.

The room was too dim for Paige to see the sock flying in her direction, so she was a little unsure of what she felt hit her on the shoulder. The hotel room lights suddenly switched on. Leo was standing by the light switch, wiping his eyes. Piper was sitting up on the bed, staring at Paige, and Phoebe was sitting on her makeshift bed, yawning.

Paige suddenly noticed the sock draped over her left shoulder and flicked it off.

'Paige, did you orb in here?' asked Piper.

'I refuse to answer that, because you know the answer and I am tired. I want to go to sleep,' said Paige.

Paige picked up her pyjamas and wandered into the bathroom to change in privacy. She shut the door behind her.

Piper got out of bed and began knocking on the bathroom door.

'Paige! Paige! What happened to the part about not using our powers? What makes you exempt from all of this, huh?' Piper shouted.

Leo put his hand on Piper's shoulder. Piper turned to face Leo.

'Piper, you and Phoebe are going to the funeral later. The Elders will figure out then and there that you are back – whether you are in disguise or not,' said Leo. 'How is Paige using her powers any different to what you are going to do?'

'It is different, because Phoebe and I are going to the funeral to speak to Dad. That does not even involve using our powers! Paige, on the other hand, is using her powers for… for…' Piper trailed off as the bathroom door opened.

Paige walked out of the bathroom dressed in her pyjamas.

'For your information, Piper, I have a charge to find,' said Paige. 'And yes, I could hear you from within the bathroom.'

Phoebe was now fully awake enough to comprehend what was going on.

'Paige, is that ringing still irritating you?' asked Phoebe.

Paige shook her head. 'It is gone now, because I visited my charge earlier.'

'Then why do you still feel obligated to help? I thought you liked staying under the radar,' said Piper.

'I don't necessarily want to help this charge. I want information from him,' said Paige.

'Information?' said Phoebe, scratching her head in confusion.

'Yes, information,' said Paige. 'I want to know why he was in the manor.'

'The manor? That manor? As in our manor?' said Piper, perplexed.

Paige nodded as she dragged a pillow and folded duvet out from underneath the sofa and set them up on top of the sofa.

'He got away from me, but I am going to find him tomorrow,' said Paige determinedly. She lay down on the sofa, and closed her eyes.

Piper and Leo switched off the light as they got back into their bed. Phoebe lay back down in her makeshift bed.

Suddenly in the darkness of the hotel room, Paige asked, 'Did I hear you say something about going to a funeral? Whose is it?'

...

'It will be our funeral if Xalinth finds us in here, Pognor,' said a demon.

Two demons stood in the cavern beneath the manor's basement. The torches were still flaring, but apart from the two of them it was empty.

Pognor shook his head and looked at the demon who had spoken.

'Repugnus, we may have fled the scene during the witches' attack, but Xalinth will understand –' began Pognor before the other demon, Repugnus, interrupted him.

'Understand? Since when do demons have the ability to understand?' growled Repugnus. 'We should get out of here before Xalinth returns. I heard that the teenage witch made him fall through the floor. Xalinth will be angry for being humiliated like that. He will take his anger out on us.'

Suddenly Xalinth flamed in behind the two demons. His expression was one of pure rage. Pognor and Repugnus turned to face him. They bowed.

'Xalinth, we have returned to make sure your plan succeeds,' said Pognor. 'As you may have noticed, we are the only two loyal enough to return. That adolescent witch does not scare us.'

Through gritted teeth, Xalinth said to Repugnus, 'You stay here and continue work on penetrating that ceiling.' Xalinth then turned to Pognor and said, 'You must go to the surface world and find that adolescent for me.'

'Do you want me to kill him?' asked Pognor.

Xalinth shook his head. 'Bring him here alive.'

...

[Astral Vision]

Piper, Leo, Phoebe, and Paige were making their way down Fifth Avenue which was comprised of many different clothes shops. The sun had been up for a while now as it was approaching ten in the morning.

Phoebe turned to her younger sister to notice that she was walking with her eyes closed.

'Er, Paige?' said Phoebe.

Paige opened her eyes and stopped walking. 'Yes?'

Phoebe stopped walking too. 'Why were you walking with your eyes shut?'

'I am trying to sense for my charge, but… I don't think I am going to find him again unless he calls for my help – involuntarily or actively,' said Paige.

'Are you concerned for the kid? Or is it because of where you found him?' asked Phoebe.

Paige sighed. 'Is it bad that I am more concerned about what he was doing in the manor than his well being?' After hearing herself say that, Paige added, 'Ugh! I am a terrible person… a terrible whitelighter.'

'Paige, you have every right to be sick of magic. We have been saving both the magical and non-magical community for so long now and we deserve a break from it – without having to hide who we are,' said Phoebe reassuringly.

Piper poked her head out of a shop that she and Leo had entered, having only just noticed that her sisters were no longer with them.

'Hey! Are you two coming? Or do you want Leo to choose your dresses for you?' Piper called across the street, a mischievous grin on her face.

Phoebe and Paige exchanged exaggerated worried looks at the prospect of Leo choosing their outfits. They quickly broke into a run, slowing down as they reached the shop.

The disguised three sisters and Leo spent the next few hours clothes shopping. As they were low on funds, they had to keep their small budget in mind, but that did not stop the sisters spending time looking through all the possible outfits. Meanwhile Leo found a suit that he liked within the first few minutes and had to wait for each of the sisters to decide on something they liked.

...

The teenage boy wandered around his empty, quiet house. He was wearing a smart pale blue shirt with a dark grey tie, black trousers, and black freshly shined shoes. He looked in a mirror to make sure his short blonde hair was tidy. He had to look presentable for the place he was about to go.

Turning away from the mirror, the teenage boy approached his front door. In front of the door was a crystal. He had had to surround the inside of his house with crystals as soon as he had gotten home in order to stop any demons finding him. He was sure that they would be looking for him after what he and his father had done.

He picked up the crystal, moving it to the side, so as he could open the front door. Leaving his house was going to be dangerous, but he was not going to miss his own father's funeral.

The teenage boy exited his house, walking casually down the street with an athame in his pocket in case a demon tried to attack him in broad daylight.

...

The undercover Charmed Ones and their ex-whitelighter walked along a busy street. They were all dressed in funeral attire. The eldest Charmed One wore a long elegant black dress with a sweater to match. Her husband wore a smart suit. The psychic witch wore a slender sleeveless black dress. Lastly the youngest of the group wore a dark grey waistcoat, a white under top, and stylish black trousers.

The party of four came to a stop outside the building that the memorial service was being held at. Piper squeezed Leo's hand, as she wondered whether or not this was the right thing to do. Leo smiled at her reassuringly. Phoebe watched as other people made their way up the steps towards the building's entrance. Some she recognised, others she did not. Meanwhile Paige shuddered at the thought that they were about to encounter a memorial service held for them.

Phoebe was the first to be brave enough to start the ascent of the steps. Paige almost immediately followed her. With an encouraging nod from Leo, the married couple began to make their way up the steps in pursuit of the single sisters.

Their memorial service was taking place in a hall on the fourth floor. However as they made their way up the stairs, they passed other halls where other funerals or memorials were taking place.

The hall where their memorial service was being held was relatively big. There were rows of seats filling the hall. The seats were mostly empty at the moment as the few people that had already arrived were wandering around the hall, chatting in small groups, or approaching Victor Bennett with their condolences.

Along the far wall, there were four photos. One of the photos was a group photo of Piper, Paige, and Phoebe. The other three photos were individual shots of the sisters. Towards the middle of the far side, there was a small platform. Presumably this would be for the speaker to use when the service began.

Victor Bennett stood to one side of the room. Little Chris held onto Victor's hand. The brunette haired toddler wore a cute little suit. He seemed intrigued by the number of people entering the hall, his eyes looking around the whole time. The blonde haired boy known as Wyatt was sitting on the chair nearest to the photo of Piper, staring at it.

'Wyatt,' Leo muttered to himself. He had caught sight of his son and realised that their son missed his parents just as much as they missed their son.

Leo walked forward, but Piper held him back. She had evidently heard what her husband had voiced, but she knew that they could not approach their eldest son – not yet.

'This is too much to handle,' Piper whispered.

Leo nodded. 'Maybe we should speak to Victor first.'

'Not just yet,' answered Piper. 'I want to see who else is here.'

'Well, I think that's the detective over there,' said Phoebe, who had been listening in on the conversation.

Phoebe was pointing over to the back corner of the hall where a tall man wearing a trench coat on top of a suit stood. The man was holding an open notepad in one hand and a pen in the other. It was difficult to tell where he was looking as sunglasses hid his eyes, but it was possible that he was observing the room for anything suspicious. In addition to all of this, a walkie-talkie was attached to the belt loop of his trench coat.

Some people had begun to gather around the photos, paying their respects by placing flowers down. This drew the three sisters' attentions. Though none of them were willing to admit it, they were each fascinated by the idea of finding out who had visited to pay their respects.

Paige began to walk towards her own photo. She stopped when she almost immediately recognised one of the bystanders.

'Glen!' Paige spoke up.

The sandy haired man – Paige's best friend since forever – known as Glen Belland looked around to see who had called his name.

'Sorry. Do I know you?' Glen asked.

Paige blushed. This had been the first time she had seen Glen in a long time. In her surprise, Paige had forgotten that she was currently under a glamour spell, and therefore that he would not recognise her – add to that the more obvious fact that this was a memorial service for her, so despite his knowledge of magic, Glen would probably be shocked to find out not only that Paige was faking her death, but also crashing her own funeral.

'Oh. Sorry, no. I'm Jo,' said Paige, holding a hand out for Glen to shake. 'I'm a cousin of the Halliwell sisters. Paige told me a lot about you.'

Glen shook her hand. He had no reason not to be persuaded by the explanation.

Paige grimaced, suddenly avoiding eye contact with Glen. 'No… I can't do this…'

Glen raised an eyebrow, puzzled by the stranger's words. 'Can't do what?'

'Glen, I can't lie. Not to you,' Paige began to say. Her eyes wandered up to his. She took a deep breath before saying the words. 'Glen, it's me…'

On the way towards her own photo, Phoebe recognised a few faces. There was Elise chatting with someone else from the Bay Mirror. Then there were other co-workers that Phoebe recognised as well as a couple of distant family members – from Victor's side – that she remembered meeting at Prue's funeral.

Phoebe came to a halt as she saw a face that she recognised but could not put a name to. The woman looked like she was somewhere in her early to mid-twenties. The woman had long blonde hair and was wearing a dark blue dress. Phoebe knew she recognised her from somewhere, but she could not remember where from.

Noticing that the woman had noticed her staring, Phoebe approached her and introduced herself. 'Hi. I'm Julie, a distant cousin of the sisters. How do you know them?'

The woman smiled pleasantly. 'I only knew two of the sisters for a short time. I met them seven years ago, so they probably wouldn't even recognise me. When I heard what had happened, I felt obliged to show up and pay my respects.'

Phoebe smiled approvingly, hiding her puzzlement over trying to identify the woman. 'The three sisters have done a lot for the local community over the years. I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name.'

The woman smiled. 'Aviva.'

Phoebe's eyes widened in surprise. Aviva was one of the first innocents she, Piper, and Prue had helped in their first year of becoming witches. The reason Phoebe had not recognised her was because Aviva had looked so different seven years earlier, especially considering she had short dyed hair back then. In fact, if Phoebe remembered correctly, Aviva was a witch.

Piper and Leo had not been able to take their eyes off their unhappy eldest son. The watchful parents made their way over to the lonely little boy. However before they were able to reach Wyatt, a teenage boy wearing a grey suit approached him and started to try and amuse the toddler by playing a small game of catch with a red ball. The teenage boy would throw the ball towards Wyatt; Wyatt would catch it, and throw it back. The game continued in this repetitive nature.

The teenage boy caught the ball and stopped when he noticed Piper and Leo staring at him.

As a technique to figure out who the teenage boy was, Leo asked him, 'Is that your little brother?'

Piper frowned at Leo for a split second. He knew as well as she did that the little boy was Wyatt and therefore that he did not have an older brother. However she suddenly realised what Leo was trying to do, so remained silent, waiting for the teenage boy to reply.

The teenage boy shook his head. 'Nah. He's Piper Halliwell's kid. I just thought he looked a little lonely. I know what it's like to lose your parents.'

Piper smiled sadly. 'Thanks for keeping him company at a time like this.'

'No problem,' said the teenage boy.

'I'm Louis and this is my wife, Jenny,' said Leo. 'What's your name?'

The teenage boy threw the ball back towards Wyatt while replying with: 'Tyler. Tyler Michaels.'

'How do you know the family?' Piper asked, wanting to find out more.

Tyler shrugged nonchalantly as he caught the ball that Wyatt had returned to him. 'The family helped me out of an ordeal once. Paige Matthews was my social worker at one point, and Piper Halliwell and her husband, Leo, helped me out of an issue with some… er… bullies, before binding my… er… book for me.'

Despite Tyler's replacement of the words demons with bullies and powers with book, Piper and Leo suddenly made the connection as to who he was. Over three years earlier, they had helped the ex-Firestarter, who was temporarily their innocent.

...

Pognor and a lower-level demon shimmered into the corridor outside of a hall a few floors below the one that the Charmed Ones were currently on. They looked into the hall and spotted the teenage boy straight away.

The two demons entered the relatively small hall. There were ten or twelve chairs placed in the hall. A closed casket sat at the far end of the hall. The teenage boy stood by the casket as a queue, consisting of five or six people, approached him to say their condolences.

The two demons joined the queue, not wanting to arouse any suspicion. They wanted to catch the teenage boy off guard.

Eventually the two demons were only one person away from confronting the teenage boy. The woman in front of them began speaking to the boy.

'I am so sorry for your loss, Will,' said the woman. 'Your father was a good man.'

'Thank you,' said Will.

The woman smiled respectfully before parting ways with the blonde teenage boy called Will. Pognor and his demonic accomplice were now at the front of the queue.

'Good afternoon,' Will said, greeting them, unaware of who they were.

Pognor snarled. 'It is, isn't it?'

The final visitor exited the hall. Will and the two demons were the only people left in the hall. The nameless demon allowed a fireball to visibly form in his hand. Will's eyes widened in horror.

...

Piper and Leo were still off to one side at the memorial service talking to Tyler, who was still keeping Wyatt entertained with a game of catch. Phoebe and Paige had regrouped after their respective conversations with people they had not seen in ages had finished.

'I saw you chatting to Glen,' said Phoebe. 'I know it must have been difficult to lie to him about who you are.'

Paige frowned sheepishly. She knew that Phoebe would be mad if she found out that Paige had told Glen everything.

Phoebe sighed, misinterpreting Paige's silence. 'I know it's not fair on you, lying to him. Especially considering that Piper and I are about to confront Dad.'

Paige nodded, and then decided to try and change the topic to something else. 'So –' However Paige was cut off as the ringing sound suddenly became audible in her head again.

'Paige?' questioned Phoebe, who had noticed the change in her younger sister's expression.

'I – I'm being called,' Paige responded, her eyes wandering as she tried to sense the location she would find the teenage boy at. Paige frowned as she rested her sight on Phoebe. 'He's… I think he's downstairs.' Paige grimaced. 'I think I am going to have to crash another funeral.'

Phoebe smirked. 'Don't act like our memorial service was the first funeral you've ever crashed. I remember two that you've crashed over the past four years. Anyway, go and find him. Piper won't mind if you leave.'

Paige nodded. She ran into the empty corridor before orbing out.

...

Will dived out of the way of a fireball. He made a run for the door, but the nameless demon shimmered in front of it, blocking the teenager's path.

'Don't give him the chance to use his power or he'll escape!' yelled Pognor.

The nameless demon nodded. He threw a fireball at the teenage witch. Will ducked. While on the ground, he pulled his athame out of his pocket. As he stood up, he propelled the hand holding the athame towards the nameless demon. However, the nameless demon grabbed Will's arm, holding it still. The nameless demon sneered wickedly.

While the nameless demon had Will distracted, Pognor formed a fireball in his hand. Xalinth had ordered them to bring the boy back alive, but that did not mean that Pognor could not bring him back unconscious. Pognor threw the fireball in the direction of the teenage boy.

'Fireball!'

The fireball was engulfed in blue and white orbs. This caused the fireball to change direction and head back towards Pognor. The fireball hit Pognor, but did not cause a dent in his demeanour. While Will continued to struggle against the strength of the nameless demon, Pognor turned to see the whitelighter-witch that had interrupted the fight.

Paige stood facing Pognor. The demon had no idea who she was other than that she was a whitelighter with extra powers that an ordinary whitelighter should not have.

'Who are you?' Pognor asked.

'A funeral crasher, but I am probably a lot more welcome here than you,' said Paige.

'Didn't anyone ever tell you it's not polite to crash a funeral?' growled the hypocritical Pognor.

'Demons!' Paige shouted. She made a sweeping motion with her arm as she said it. Both Pognor and the nameless demon were telekinetically orbed into the wall.

Now that the nameless demon was no longer gripping his arm, Will darted for the door. Glancing quickly between the two demons that were getting to their feet and the strange teenage boy that was running away again, Paige headed after Will.

Paige caught up with him on the staircase, orbing into his path to stop him from proceeding any further.

'Kid! I need to speak to you!' Paige said stubbornly.

'Well, if you haven't noticed, there are currently two demons after me, so I think a conversation with a whitelighter can be held off for now,' said Will, trying to get past Paige, but she was not letting him.

'Look, I am no ordinary whitelighter, I am a witch too, and I can help you,' Paige explained hurriedly.

Will glanced frantically behind him. The sound of running footsteps was getting louder. The demons were not far from catching up.

Turning back to Paige, he said, 'Fine. Just orb us out of here first.'

'Fine,' said Paige, smiling, grabbing the teenager's hand.

Paige orbed the two of them out of the stairwell into a very familiar setting. Will recognised the place straight away. It was the living room of Halliwell manor, the place where he had first ran into the stubborn whitelighter-witch.

'Why did you bring me here?' Will asked hastily. 'This is exactly where the demons wanted me to go!'

Paige furrowed her brow, confused. 'Okay, kid. You need to start talking. What's going on?'

...

[Astral Vision]

Back in the hall at their memorial service, the two Halliwell sisters and Leo had joined an ever growing queue of people saying their condolences to Victor. There were a number of people in front of them and the queue was moving somewhat slowly.

'I cannot believe how many people that we have met only once in the past have turned up,' Phoebe said.

Piper sighed. 'Yeah, but we've given up…'

Phoebe shrugged. 'We deserve to give up. We never wanted to do this.'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'Oh come on. You so wanted to at the beginning. You're the one who embraced being a you-know-what first.' Since they were in a busy queue at the moment, they did not want to say anything that could be overheard the wrong way.

'I found the idea of…' Phoebe lowered her voice so as only Piper and Leo could hear for the next part, '…magical powers…' before raising her voice to a normal level again, '…interesting.'

'Yeah, but you also enjoyed helping people,' Piper pointed out.

'And you didn't?' Phoebe questioned.

'Well, obviously I did enjoy helping others,' said Piper. 'It was the only thing that made me believe that being a you-know-what could be a good thing.'

'Then when did that change for you?' Phoebe asked.

Piper took a deep breath before saying, 'Probably when Prue died. Everything changed and despite the fact that we were still helping people, I guess I focused on the fact that it was interrupting the life I was trying to have.' Piper narrowed her eyes sceptically as she added, 'Anyway, you can't judge me. You definitely started hating this lifestyle after a while too!'

'Well, yeah. Most likely because I finally had a life of my own: A boyfriend, then a job, and then a marriage. Okay, so that didn't work out, but the job's still there. Or at least it was, until we…' Phoebe paused to lower her voice, concluding with: '…faked our deaths.'

Suddenly the person who had been standing in front of them in the queue turned around. He was a tall teenage boy with glasses.

'Excuse me, but did I hear you mention Prue Halliwell a few minutes ago?' the boy asked.

Piper, Phoebe, and Leo exchanged looks. Piper and Phoebe nodded slowly, worried about what else he may have heard. Leo, however, smiled.

'Max!' Leo greeted.

The boy known as Max looked puzzled. 'How do you know my name?'

'Er…' Leo said.

From hearing the name, Piper instantly recognised the boy. He was Max Franklin. Although he had been Prue's innocent and Leo's charge, Piper had met him when he came to Prue's funeral four years earlier – Max left before Phoebe spoke to Paige, receiving a premonition, and before the demonic bounty hunters came for Cole, ruining what remained of the funeral. Max was a witch with the power of psychokinesis and had been Leo's charge up until Leo became an Elder. Although Leo was mortal now, he still knew all of his previous charges whenever he bumped into them.

'My husband knew your ex-whitelighter. Your ex-whitelighter talked about his charges a lot,' Piper said quickly.

Max looked a little taken aback that these strangers were so open about magic. Lowering his voice, he said, 'Are you witches too?'

Phoebe nodded. 'We are, but let's keep that between the four of us.'

Max agreed. He suddenly noticed that the line had moved forward a little, so went to walk forward.

As they moved forward in the line, Piper and Phoebe suddenly noticed that Leo was now looking in the opposite direction. The ex-whitelighter was watching Detective Riley, who was still standing in the corner of the hall.

'Honey, is everything okay?' Piper asked, catching Leo's attention.

Leo turned to Piper and feigned a smile. 'I want to keep my guard up with that detective here. We may want Victor to find out, but we definitely don't want him to.'

'It's okay. We'll be careful,' Piper assured Leo.

Leo let out a sigh. 'I know you will. I just don't trust cops at funerals.'

...

Paige peeked out of the living room window between the closed curtains. She noticed that a police car was stationed on the street. Paige quickly ducked out of view of the window, allowing the curtains to remain closed as she turned back towards Will.

'You're lucky the cops weren't watching over the manor last night when you did your disappearing door trick, kid,' said Paige. 'Now start talking.'

Will shook his head. 'Do you not listen? The demons will find me here so easily! This is practically their territory!'

Paige furrowed her brow. Rather than asking the teenage boy why he thought that, she decided that the pressure of staying somewhere that worried him would cause him to tell her more. Therefore, Paige said, 'Then you may want to talk fast, kid, because we're not leaving until you've explained everything.'

Will sighed in exasperation. He slumped down onto the sofa. This caused a burst of dust to rise from the sofa. Paige tried to hide a dismayed look at how dirty the manor had become in just over a month.

'My name is Will Cooper. I'm a witch and I come from a long line of witches. All that was left of my family was my father and I,' Will began. 'When the Charmed Ones died, my family and a group of other magically inclined families knew that we could not stand down and let evil win. There will always be demons and there should always be witches to stop them.'

'This group of witches… who are they?' Paige asked while Will was pausing for breath.

Will shrugged. 'Never met them. My father and I knew that we were not the only witches out there that were snooping around for information on what was going on in the evil community. That's the only reason I know there may be others.'

Paige nodded. She took a seat on an armchair – which also erupted with dust once sat on – as she waited for Will to continue.

'My father found out about an upper-level demon trying to steal the Nexus…' Will continued.

Paige shook her head. 'That was Zankou. The Charmed Ones stopped him and destroyed the Nexus in the process.'

'Zankou's not the only one with that plan. Another upper-level demon, Xalinth, was working on stealing the Nexus at the same time as Zankou, and is still in the process of doing so,' said Will.

'That still cannot be right. He won't find anything,' protested Paige. 'My si – I mean, the Charmed Ones destroyed the Nexus along with Zankou. There is no Nexus down there to take.'

Will shrugged. 'Xalinth doesn't seem to think all hope is lost or he wouldn't be doing it. The point is that Xalinth has been working on stealing the Nexus, and he still is. Xalinth is trying to access the Nexus from below. He had demons digging upwards from below this manor's basement.'

'Wait. Why upwards?' Paige asked. 'The manor has been empty for over a month now. If the Nexus wasn't destroyed and is still there, why hasn't he tried accessing it from inside the basement?'

'From what I've heard, he's a demon that likes to work covertly,' explained Will. 'I guess he would have attracted too much attention from other demons if he were to change his plan after the defeat of Zankou and the Charmed Ones.' Will paused as his expression became grave. 'My father and I attempted an attack the other day to diminish the number of demons working for Xalinth. We succeeded in slowing Xalinth's plan down, but the success came at the cost of my father…'

'I am sorry for your loss,' Paige said respectfully. 'Sorry if this seems disrespectful at all, but I found you here in the early hours of the morning. Why did you return if you knew the manor was unsafe?'

Will coughed to clear his throat before he continued. 'I came back to look around the manor for anything the Charmed Ones may have had that could be useful in an attack against Xalinth…'

Paige nodded. 'Zankou definitely wasn't the first demon that had attempted to steal the Nexus, so I can see why you would think the Charmed Ones might be used to protecting the Nexus.'

'Yeah…' muttered Will.

'I hate to break it to you, but Zankou was no easy demon to defeat. Otherwise the Charmed Ones wouldn't currently be presumed dead,' Paige said.

'Which is why I have to face Xalinth and vanquish him myself,' stated Will. 'Once I find out how, that is.'

'Will, you can't do this alone,' said Paige. 'I am going to help you…'

Will shook his head. 'No. I have to do this alone… I have to…' Will stood up, a determined expression on his face. 'I don't know how yet, but… I am going to vanquish Xalinth.'

Paige stood up too. 'Listen, you're not doing this alone.'

'No, you're not going to help me. This has nothing to do with you. Xalinth killed my father. This is my fight,' said Will.

Paige smiled. 'I think I can convince you that this is also my fight. Technically my sisters' fight too, but… I can fight on behalf of them.'

Will looked puzzled at this statement. His eyes widened as Paige became engulfed in silver orbs. When the silver orbs disappeared, the disguise was gone and Paige was back to looking like herself – her dark hair had grown longer over the month that she had spent in hiding. The initial surprise that the female witch had been under a glamour spell had worn off. Will did not look impressed.

'What do disguises have to do with anything?' Will asked.

Paige looked a little offended by that remark. 'You mean you don't know who I am?'

'You're the extremely stubborn whitelighter-witch that orbed us to a manor under threat by demons,' said Will.

Paige rolled her eyes. She wandered over to the mantelpiece and picked up a photo frame containing a photo of her sisters and herself.

'Do you not know a Charmed One when you see one?' Paige said, handing Will the photo frame.

'I've never met a Charmed One before. I've only heard of them,' Will explained. He looked down at the photo for the first time and then over at Paige. He had to double-check that the person standing in front of him was the person in the photo. 'It can't be… They're dead.'

Paige shook her head. 'We're presumed dead… Trust me, being dead is a totally different thing. I would know. When you're a Charmed One, death happens a lot.'

Will put the photo frame down on the dusty coffee table. 'If you're a whitelighter-witch… That makes you Paige Matthews, right?'

Paige grinned. 'The one and only. If the demons are attacking this house, then that makes it our business too.'

'The Charmed Ones are alive!'

Paige and Will turned around. The two demons that had attacked Will at the funeral were standing in the living room, fireballs alight in each of their hands.

Keeping her eyes on the currently stationary fireballs, Paige said, 'So neither of these two are Xalinth, right? They're just the lackeys?'

'Yep,' said Will through gritted teeth. He was preparing to grab his athame out of his pocket.

Paige directed her next sentence towards Pognor and the nameless demon. 'Sorry guys, but I really don't have time for dealing with demonic cronies. I'm going to go straight to the top.' Paige grabbed Will's hand and orbed the two of them out of the living room.

Pognor and the nameless demon had released their fireballs just as Paige orbed out with Will. The fireballs went straight through the disappearing blue and white orbs, hitting the closed curtains. The curtains burst into flames.

...

In the police car outside the manor on Prescott Street, a sandy haired officer was keeping watch over the manor. His eyes widened in alarm as the curtains behind one of the downstairs windows caught alight.

The officer picked up his walkie-talkie and switched it on.

'Riley? This is Sanders speaking. There is movement at the manor, I repeat, movement at the manor,' the officer, Inspector David Sanders, said into the walkie-talkie. His eyes were firmly planted on the burning curtains as he waited for a reply.

The reply came relatively quickly: 'Riley here. I can't get there as back up for you – I don't want to leave the memorial service just yet. Call for other back up and keep me updated.'

'Understood. Over and out,' said Sanders, switching off his walkie-talkie. He put the radio device back into his pocket.

Ignoring the advice of calling for back up, Sanders stepped out of his car. Making sure that he had a gun on him, Sanders approached the manor cautiously.

...

In the basement of the manor, blue and white orbs flew towards the floor, but bounced upwards as they materialised into Paige and Will. Paige and Will went toppling onto the debri-filled basement floor.

'Ow,' said Paige, sitting up. 'Why couldn't I orb down there?'

Will got to his feet. 'Xalinth must have the place protected from whitelighters. Witches can't teleport, but whitelighters can, so it makes sense to have that sort of a barrier up.'

Paige stood up. 'You couldn't have mentioned that before?'

Will rolled his eyes. 'It's not like you discussed your plan before orbing!'

The sound of a slow taunting clapping was heard. The two witches looked into a shadowy corner of the basement to see a demon emerging from it.

'So those two demons were telling the truth a moment ago. The Charmed Ones – or at least one of them – are alive. Hmm… Maybe I shouldn't have vanquished those two demons when I thought they were lying,' the demon said maliciously.

'Xalinth,' Will said, narrowing his eyes.

The demon smirked at being identified by the young witch. Xalinth nodded. 'That's me, and you… you're the boy that I was looking for all along.' Xalinth let out a callous laugh as he added, 'And you were delivered to me, not by the demons that I sent looking for you, but by a Charmed One!'

Paige scowled at Xalinth. 'You're not going to get Will or the Nexus! Considering my sisters and I came out of our battle against Zankou in one piece, you're going to be a piece of cake to vanquish!'

'Oh really?' said Xalinth, unconvinced.

All eyes suddenly darted towards the basement door as someone shouting 'Police! Show yourself!' was heard.

While Paige was distracted by the fact that there was a policeman in a house currently containing an upper-level demon, Xalinth launched an energy ball in their direction. Will dived out of the way. He hit his head on a piece of debri, knocking himself out. Paige orbed on the spot at the last second. The energy ball hit a loose beam behind Paige. As she orbed back to where she had been standing the beam fell onto her, trapping her arm. The agony was so painful that she could not focus on orbing out from under the beam.

Xalinth approached Paige, a new energy ball in his hand. Paige stared up at him, waiting for him to throw it at her. However, Xalinth let the energy ball fizzle out just as the basement door burst open.

Xalinth sneered. 'I'll let the mortals find you,' he whispered. 'It wouldn't be much of a fight if I didn't get to face all three Charmed Ones, would it?'

With those words, Xalinth grabbed Will's shoulder, and flamed out.

Inspector Sanders came running down the basement steps. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the youngest missing resident of the manor caught under the debris of the basement.

Sanders picked up his walkie-talkie and spoke into it. 'I need all units on Prescott Street and an ambulance. One of the victims has been found. I repeat, she has been found.'

...

In the queue at the memorial service, Max had just finished speaking to Victor. As Max bade goodbye to Victor, he made his way out of the line. Piper, Phoebe, and Leo were now at the front.

'Hi…' said Piper.

'Good afternoon,' said Victor sombrely. Little Chris was no longer standing with him. He had wandered off to join in the game of catch with Wyatt and Tyler.

'Hey,' said Phoebe, feigning a smile.

'So… How did you know the girls?' Victor asked the three people stood in front of him.

Piper, Phoebe, and Leo exchanged looks. Piper was the first to reply:

'We knew them, because… because… We are –'

Detective Riley came running over to Victor. The detective had his walkie-talkie in his hand. He pulled Victor over to one side.

'Hey, buddy! We were talking!' Piper yelled in frustration.

However, the contents of what Riley was saying to Victor caused Piper to stop yelling. Piper, Phoebe, and Leo were close enough to hear everything Riley was saying.

'We have new evidence that suggests the sisters are alive,' Riley said.

'What's the evidence?' Victor asked, concerned.

Riley took a deep breath before revealing: 'One of the sisters has been found alive at the manor.'

To be continued...

---

Let me know what you think of this first part.
Here's the second part/episode/chapter: EPISODE TWO: Mostly Charmless (Part Two)

[cyma]

I'm still waiting for chapter 3 on FF.net

[Astral Vision]

Aug 25, 2013 15:13:08 GMT -5 cyma said:

I'm still waiting for chapter 3 on FF.net

xD Thanks for liking the posts here, DT. Chapter three is taking some time to write, but it's making progress.

[Astral Vision]

A few things before I continue with part/episode/chapter two:

• Phoebe starts talking about psychology towards the end of the chapter - it could be completely wrong, but I'm no expert in psychology and it fit, so... sorry if it is complete rubbish.
• Also I know there was a Nexus solution in The Importance of Being Phoebe, but that one should never have worked, so it won't work in this one either.
  
• At the end of this episode, Piper mentions that Chris is only eight months old. It has been pointed out to me that I forgot all about Chris' cancelled first birthday party in Death Becomes Them in season seven. However, because I am going by the fact Charmed wikia's birth date for Chris, and because I am going by the possibility that the events of season seven only took place over six months (November 2004 - May 2005). It's not like they let him have his birthday party in that episode anyway.

---

Mostly Charmless (Part Two)

July 1st 2005

Still in their disguises, Piper and Phoebe entered a quiet private hospital room. Piper shut the door behind her while Phoebe ran straight over to the bed where their raven haired sister lay.

Paige sat up in her hospital bed. 'Piper? Phoebe? What took you so long to get here?'

Phoebe frowned. 'We couldn't exactly run in midway through surgery with Piper freezing the place, now could we?'

Paige nodded. 'Fair point. Wait… How did you two get in here without I.D.?'

'I may not have used it in over a month, but my freezing power still does a fine job on sneaking past people,' Piper said proudly. 'Leo staid outside to stop people entering once the freeze has worn off.'

Piper grimaced as she noticed the cast covering Paige's left arm. Paige blushed when she noticed Piper looking at it.

'I have to wear this for six whole weeks,' Paige said sheepishly.

'I don't think Piper was going to ask about that,' Phoebe said. 'I think the question would have been: What were you doing in the manor that led to this?'

'Right!' said Paige, becoming more focused. 'Okay, you two have got to look up Xalinth in the Book and find Will before it's too late.'

Piper looked puzzled. 'Who's Xalinth and who's Will?'

Paige sighed. 'Xalinth's the demon trying to steal the Nexus – and before you say it, I also thought it was destroyed in our last battle, but he does not seem to think so – and Will is my charge, which could also make him our innocent.'

'Our innocent?' Piper questioned. 'Are you implying that we're back?'

'Well, I'm back. In the magical community and in the non-magical world: I'm known to be alive,' Paige said. 'It's up to you two about what you're going to do. Whatever you decide, I need your help with saving Will.'

The door opened. Victor entered hastily. A still-in-disguise Leo ran in behind him, trying to stop him.

'Paige, you need to tell me what's going on,' Victor said. He came to a stop as he noticed the two women standing in the hospital room with Paige. He obviously recognised them from the funeral. Looking from Piper to Phoebe and then to Leo who was behind him, Victor asked, 'Who are you people?'

Leo shut the door so as no one in the corridor might hear what was about to be said. Piper gulped as she prepared herself for her father's reaction.

'Dad, it's us,' said Piper.

Leo offered Victor a chair as he suddenly looked very weak. He almost fell onto the chair in his surprise at the revelation that his daughters were alive and speaking to him.

'I may not look like myself right now, but I – I'm Piper,' Piper continued.

Before Victor had the chance to make a reply, Phoebe added, 'Hi Dad… It's me. Phoebe.'

Victor looked over at Leo. The stunned man managed to say, 'Which must make you Leo?' When Leo nodded, Victor looked back over at his disguised daughters. 'You're alive?'

Piper and Phoebe nodded. They hugged their father.

'I hate to break up this family reunion, but…' Paige said awkwardly.

Piper nodded. 'We've got an innocent to save. You're right.'

Paige smiled. 'So you don't mind doing this?'

Supporting Piper's decision, Phoebe answered with: 'Of course not.'

Paige furrowed her brow. 'What changed your minds? I am pretty sure everything I did yesterday was against your rules.'

Piper blushed. 'Let's just say that the guests at our funeral yesterday showed Phoebe and I that maybe… just maybe… we had forgotten what being the Charmed Ones was all about…'

'Helping the innocents,' Phoebe concluded.

...

The cavern below Halliwell manor consisted of only three occupants. Repugnus was pushing a wheelbarrow full of rubble from above to the side of the cavern. Xalinth was pacing the floor, considering his next move. He looked over at his captive who was chained to one of the crumbly walls. To stop the teenage witch from using his power to escape, he had been blindfolded.

Repugnus stopped pushing the wheelbarrow and turned to face Xalinth.

'Why is the adolescent witch still alive?' Repugnus asked. 'He made a fool out of you. He should pay for what he did.'

'He will,' Xalinth replied, coming to a halt and facing Repugnus. 'For now, the teenage witch is the main bait for drawing the two remaining Charmed Ones out of hiding.'

'The main bait? As in there is more than one use of bait?' Repugnus questioned.

'Not exactly, but what irks a Charmed One more than one of their own being hurt?' was Xalinth's rhetorical reply.

Repugnus nodded. 'That's why you let that nosy Charmed One survive.'

'By the time they get here, I will have possession of the Nexus,' said Xalinth, indirectly ordering Repugnus to continue his work.

'You'll never get the Nexus!' Will yelled.

Xalinth smirked at his prisoner. 'I will succeed; I get the unexpected joy of killing the Charmed Ones; and you will pay.'

...

Up above in the basement of Halliwell manor, Detective Riley and Inspector Sanders were looking at the scene. There was debris everywhere, just like a month ago when they had first inspected the basement. However there were a couple more newly fallen beams covering the floor.

'How much do you think it's going to cost to put this basement back in one piece?' Sanders asked.

Riley shrugged. 'Doesn't matter. It's not our problem. Our problem is finding out how Miss Matthews got here and where she has been over the past month. She may be able to help us find her sisters.'

Sanders nodded. He knelt down and brushed some rubble off the floor. His eyes widened in surprise as he noticed something in the concrete floor. Currently blocked off by a heavy broken beam was a wooden hatch.

'Riley, you're not going to believe what I have just found…' Sanders commented.

Riley narrowed his eyes sceptically. 'What'd you find?'

'I think… There may be another room below this basement…' Sanders replied.

Riley knelt down beside Sanders in disbelief. Riley's doubt was proven wrong when he saw the hatch that Sanders was pointing out.

'What if – And this is just a theory… What if the sisters knew there was going to be an explosion in their basement? What if they went into the cellar beneath their basement for safety? What if the other two sisters are still alive and down there?' hypothesised Sanders.

Riley contemplated the idea. 'That theory has no evidence. All we've got here is a blocked off hatch.' Riley stood up and looked at the heavy beam that presently blocked the hatch from being accessible. 'Do you think the two of us can get that beam to budge?'

Sanders pondered the possibility. The beam that was blocking the hatch was covered with other heavy-looking debris. One end of the huge beam looked partially lodged into the wooden staircase.

Sanders shook his head. 'Nah. We're going to have to get some people in to budge it.'

'They better start a.s.a.p. because I want to know what's under this basement,' said Riley determinedly. 'I'll stay here and call you when the hatch is clear. In the meantime, you are going to the hospital to interview Miss Matthews.'

The two officers exited the basement, cautiously making their way up the wooden staircase that had somehow remained stable enough to use.

...

Sitting back in their dingy hotel room, Piper and Phoebe were no longer in disguise. They had taken the glamour spell off as they were in private. Piper's brunette hair was as long as ever, and she currently wore it down. Meanwhile since the pixie cut of oh-three, Phoebe's brunette hair had been getting longer and darker with each passing year. Despite her hair length, Phoebe had not changed much in appearance since the battle against Zankou. The thoughts of the two sisters were currently focused on coming up with a plan.

'Hopefully Leo will be back from Dad's soon,' said Phoebe.

Piper nodded glumly. 'I just wish we could have gone with to get the Book… Speak to Wyatt and Chris while there…'

Phoebe sighed. 'The police are still keeping an eye on Dad. We don't want to look too conspicuous by all three of us turning up on his doorstep and leaving with a big package.'

Piper closed her eyes and nodded silently. 'You're right… I just… I didn't even get a chance to say hi to Wyatt or Chris at the memorial service.'

Phoebe feigned a smile. 'Piper, after we have figured out a way to save our innocent and vanquish that demon, then we'll focus on figuring out how to unfake our deaths.'

Piper let out a small laugh. 'Unfake our deaths? You write articles for your advice column on a daily basis, yet you couldn't come up with a better way to say: Reveal to the world that, like Paige, we're not actually dead?'

Phoebe blushed. 'If you haven't noticed, I've been a little too preoccupied with other things over the past month to write my column, starting with the fact that everyone thinks I'm dead. Sending in a column would probably make the term ghost writing quite literal.'

Piper smiled. 'Ghost writing… That's when you write for someone else under that person's name… So if you were sending in work for yourself under your own name – dead or not – ghost writing is not –'

'I know it does not technically work in the joke, but what else could I have called it?' said Phoebe, annoyed that Piper had pointed out the error in her thinking.

Leo – still disguised in his glamour – opened the door. He quickly closed the door behind him and placed a brown parcel on the bed. Phoebe quickly tore into it to reveal the Book of Shadows.

While Phoebe began to search through the Book, Leo asked Piper, 'Could you do me a favour and take this glamour off?'

'Sure,' said Piper.

Piper swept her hand upwards. Silver orbs engulfed Leo. When the orbs disappeared, Leo was back to looking like his usual self.

'Thanks,' said Leo. He turned back to the door and put his hand on the handle to open it.

'What are you doing, Leo?' Piper asked. 'You can't go outside looking like yourself, just as much as we can't go outside looking like ourselves.'

Leo turned back around to face Piper. He was smiling.

'I'm not going outside, Piper,' said Leo. 'I was opening the door to let in some visitors that I went to look for on my way back from your dad's.'

Phoebe stopped leafing through the Book and looked up at Leo, a puzzled expression on her face. Piper wore a matching expression.

'Visitors?' Piper questioned.

Leo nodded. He let the door open to reveal two teenage boys and a woman in her early twenties: Max, Tyler, and Aviva. The expressions of the two young witches and ex-Firestarter mirrored the expressions of the two Halliwell sisters.

Max, Tyler, and Aviva were shocked to see that the Halliwell family friend that had led them back to the hotel for a magic related reason was now Leo. Not only that, but that the two other occupants of the hotel room were the presumed dead Halliwell sisters.

...

[Astral Vision]

In the private room at San Francisco Memorial Hospital, Glen was helping Paige to pack the last of her belongings into her bag. Her bandaged arm was now being held up with a sling. After the youngest Charmed One had zipped up her bag with her right hand, she swung it over her right shoulder.

Glen looked at Paige nostalgically. 'You know, this reminds me of that one time in high school, when you were climbing out of the window to ditch class with me, and you…'

Paige smirked. 'I lost balance and fell out the window, breaking my arm in the process.' Paige's smile faded as she said, 'Glen, you should go. Jessica is probably worried about you.'

Glen shrugged. 'She'll understand. It's not everyday that a guy goes to his best friend's funeral, just to be visiting that exact same best friend in hospital the very next day.'

Paige looked away from Glen sheepishly. 'Thanks for not hating me for not telling you before yesterday…'

Glen looked surprised at the partial apology. 'Paige, I could never hate you. You and your sisters had your reasons. Besides you told me everything yesterday at the funeral, despite not being yourself.' If it was not serious before, Glen's expression became serious as he asked, 'So where are you going to go now?'

Paige shrugged. 'To see my sisters. I have a lot to do: catch up on their plan; save an innocent; and vanquish a demon.'

'Are your sisters going to rejoin the living world in the same sense as you after all of this?' Glen asked.

Paige let out a sigh. 'That's their decision to make, and I hope they do decide to go for it, because I don't fancy running all their errands for them in the future.'

Glen laughed. He gave Paige a hug and wished her good luck. The two said goodbye and Glen left the hospital room. Paige made one last check around the hospital room in case she had left anything behind.

Despite her sisters telling her not to go back to the hotel room while they were still presumed dead by the public, Paige was determined to be a part of the demonic fight. Therefore she was going to orb straight into the hotel room.

Before she even had a chance to begin orbing, a sandy haired police officer entered the hospital room. Paige instantly recognised him as the police officer that had found her in the basement. Paige did not know his name, but she was sure she was about to find out.

'Inspector David Sanders,' the officer said, introducing himself, as he held out his right hand for Paige to shake.

Paige shook his hand. 'I guess I don't need to introduce myself.'

Sanders smiled. 'Of course not, Miss Matthews. I always remember a face, especially when that face is of someone that's been presumed dead for the past five weeks.'

Paige frowned. 'Are you trying to accuse me of something, Inspector?'

'Not at all,' said Sanders. 'I am not allowed to make any assumptions at the moment. You could be innocent, or you could be guilty.'

'Okay, well, thanks for finding me in the basement… but I have somewhere to be, so… I'll be going now,' said Paige, trying to hedge past the policeman. Now that he was here, all Paige wanted to do was leave and find an empty corridor to orb out from.

Sanders manoeuvred himself so as he was blocking the door. As that door – other than a window that Paige did not intend to try and climb through with one working arm and a policeman watching her – was Paige's only non-magical means of exit, Paige could not leave.

'You have somewhere to be? Where's that?' Sanders asked curiously. 'Not to sound harsh, but your sisters are suspected dead, your brother-in-law is missing, and according to case files, other than your sisters, you have no other living blood relatives.'

'Number one: You forget about my two awesome nephews,' Paige said irritably. 'And number two: Just because he's not my father, that does not mean that Victor Bennett does not treat me like a member of the family.'

'So you are going to Mr. Bennett's home?' asked Sanders.

Paige rubbed her forehead in aggravation. She just wanted to get straight to that hotel room.

'Where else do I have to go? My house is currently inaccessible, because your lot think it is still a crime scene,' Paige complained.

'If it wasn't still a crime scene, we would never have found you there,' countered Sanders. 'I need you to tell me something, Miss Matthews. You may be the only person that knows the answer, and if your sisters are still alive, we may be able to find them. What happened at 1329 Prescott Street on May 22nd?'

Paige sighed, giving herself a little more time to come up with a convincing lie. Realising that she better not say anything until she had gone over a cover story with her sisters, Paige said, 'I can't remember…'

Sanders stared at Paige, looking for any sign of deception. 'Where have you been for the last month?'

Paige gulped. 'It's all a little hazy right now…'

Furrowing his brow, Sanders tried another question. 'How did you come to be in the basement yesterday, trapped under that fallen beam? In addition to that, do you have any idea why the living room curtains caught fire yesterday?'

Smiling weakly, Paige said, 'My short term memory hasn't come back yet. Yesterday was just so traumatic that all I remember is waking up in the hospital.'

The inspector shook his head. He had evidently not believed one of Paige's lies. There were a few moments of silence while he jotted something down in his notepad. Putting the notepad in his pocket, Sanders looked at Paige gravely.

'What's beneath the basement?' Sanders suddenly asked. This question received a puzzled look from Paige. 'Miss Matthews, we found the hatch in the basement floor. What's beneath it?'

'Hatch? What hatch?' asked Paige. This was the first honest reply she had given. She knew the answer to what was below the basement, but the fact that there was a hatch that led from the basement down into the cavern that she could not orb into was news to her.

'Miss Matthews, I know you are hiding something. My colleagues are working on a way to unblock that hatch and as soon as we do, we will go down there,' said Sanders coldly. 'You telling me these things could make the difference between us finding your sisters alive and us finding your sisters… dead.'

Sanders stepped away from the doorway as he finished his dialogue. Refusing to add anything to what had already been said, Paige headed out of the hospital room, knowing that she and her sisters now had a tighter deadline to work against for vanquishing the demon. If the police accessed the hatch and encountered Xalinth, they were not going to survive the meeting.

...

Max, Tyler, and Aviva sat on the sofa in the hotel room. The three of them were still trying to grasp the concept that Piper, Phoebe, and Leo – sat on the bed opposite – were facing them, alive and well.

'I heard soon after the memorial service yesterday that the cops had found Paige alive, so… that's when I sort of expected that the three of you might be lurking around still… but… I just never expected that I had been speaking to you at the funeral… or that you would lead me here to speak to you…' Tyler rambled.

The Book of Shadows was open to a random page on Phoebe's lap. She had not found the page on Xalinth yet, but had stopped looking through the Book in order to look up and listen to Tyler.

Phoebe nodded in response to the ex-Firestarter's words. 'I agree with you on that last part. I have no idea why Leo decided to bring you three here.'

Leo sat forward a little, as he began his explanation. 'I brought them here, because the three of them can help.'

'No offense, but according to Paige, this demon is trying to steal the Nexus,' said Piper. 'He may be just as bad as Zankou, but we beat Zankou without any extra help. We can beat this guy too.'

Leo shook his head, looking at his wife with care. 'Piper… The three of you were lucky to survive. Whatever method you used last time won't work this time. Xalinth will be prepared. You need back up to get through this.'

Piper frowned. 'No! We are not putting their lives on the line! This is too dangerous!'

'I agree with Piper. They're only kids,' Phoebe added.

'I think they might have something to say about that,' said Leo.

Piper, Phoebe, and Leo looked over at the two witches and ex-Firestarter. The three former innocents had been listening intently to the conversation between the two Charmed Ones and the ex –whitelighter.

'We actually do,' said Aviva, scowling at Piper and Phoebe's remarks. 'Firstly, I am not a kid! Phoebe, I am practically the age you were when I met you! Plus I've got an amazing offensive power, which – before you say anything – I can control now.'

Tyler looked round at Aviva curiously. 'What power's that?'

'Pyrokinesis,' Aviva said a little smugly.

Tyler rolled his eyes.

'I thought that was only a power that Kali gave you,' Piper pointed out.

'So did I, until I developed the power by myself a few months later,' Aviva explained. 'I guess all that Kali did was speed up my power development in her plan to escape her prison and kill you two and Prue. When you vanquished her, the pyrokinetic powers went away, because I was not ready for them yet.' Piper and Phoebe nodded to show that they thought Aviva's rationalisation could be right. Aviva continued with: 'It's an amazing offensive power for battling demons. I can back you two and Paige up in this fight.'

'Okay, maybe you can help us, Aviva…' mumbled Phoebe. 'Tyler and Max can't though. They are too young.'

'I may only be fourteen, but I've always had almost perfect control over my psychokinesis. I can help you,' Max said determinedly. 'Your sister helped me out of a tough situation seven years ago. It's about time that I returned the favour.'

Piper frowned. 'Fine, but you and Aviva won't be going up against Xalinth. That's the job of Phoebe, Paige, and I.'

'Hey! What about me? If a fourteen year old can take part, then so can I! I'm fifteen! I'm older than him! I can do this!' Tyler complained.

Piper turned to Tyler. 'Your powers are bound, remember? You are so not facing any demons without any powers.'

Huffily, Tyler said, 'Well, maybe I want my powers back. Maybe I want them unbound.'

'Do you actually want them unbound or are you just saying that because you feel left out?' Piper asked.

Tyler scowled at being treated like an indecisive little kid. 'My life has stabilised since that time when I met you. I am ready to get my powers back.'

'That doesn't mean you'll be able to control them,' Piper countered. 'You couldn't exactly control them last time, and if we unbind them now, there won't be enough time before the battle for you to learn to control them.'

'Leo obviously trusts that I can do this, or he would not have brought me here,' Tyler pointed out.

Leo blushed a little at being thrown into the centre of the argument. However he quickly regained his composure and nodded encouragingly in support of Tyler.

'I think Tyler's ready,' Leo said.

'And your power is?' Aviva pried.

Tyler shrugged nonchalantly. 'I'm not a witch like you lot. I'm a Firestarter. The power's in the name. It's a whole lot better than some silly power like pyrokinesis.' Tyler finished his sentence with a smug smile.

Aviva rolled her eyes. 'Yeah right. We'll see about that, kid.'

While the discussion revolving around Tyler had been taking place, Phoebe had begun to turn the pages of the Book of Shadows again in search of the Xalinth entry. Phoebe suddenly smiled as she found the page she had been looking for. However, as her eyes skimmed down the page, her smile faded.

Nonetheless, Phoebe's changes in expression went unnoticed by Piper, Leo, and their three volunteers. Piper had started jotting down a list of ingredients that were components of most potions. Putting the finishing touches to the list, Piper looked up and handed it to Aviva.

'This list should cover everything we need for potions. You can get it all from Chinatown. Oh, and if you could pick up a pot to cook it all in, that would be great,' said Piper. 'Take Tyler and Max with you. Phoebe, Leo, and I can't come with you without using another glamour spell. That time will be better spent by us staying here and going over a plan.'

Aviva stared at the list for a split second before looking back over at Piper. 'I want to help with the plan. Tyler and Max can go and get the ingredients without me.'

Leo shook his head. He was on the same wavelength as Piper when it came to her reasons.

'Chinatown isn't exactly a place for minors. You're the only one out of you three who's over twenty one,' said Leo.

'Then why do Tyler and I have to go?' Max asked. 'We could stay here and help with the plan.'

Tyler nodded encouragingly in support of Max's question.

'So as you can equally share out the weight of carrying everything back here,' Leo explained.

After a couple more futile protests from the three former innocents, Aviva, Max, and Tyler left the hotel room. Phoebe thought that now was an appropriate time to show her sister and brother-in-law the contents of the page on Xalinth. A hand drawn picture, next to the handwritten entry, was an accurate depiction of the upper-level demon – not that Piper, Phoebe, or Leo could tell as they had not yet met him. The entry read as follows:

'A demonic Seer that has risen above other demons that possess the same gift, Xalinth has long been an upper-level demon. His power of advanced premonition is accompanied by a heightened power of telepathy. Other than the above information, little is known of Xalinth's conquests, exploits, or choice of alliance. Xalinth is a demon that only lets a chosen few in on his plans whenever he requires assistance. Therefore his secrecy makes him a lesser seen or heard of demon – and therefore not a threat unless you stumble into his plans.'

When the three of them had finished reading, Leo said, 'Looks like he isn't as bad as Zankou or the Source, but…'

Piper automatically finished the sentence for Leo, '…But he is definitely more powerful than the average demon and he does currently have the location advantage considering he wants the Nexus. Not only that, but Will was lucky to escape the first time around. No wonder Xalinth sent demons after him.'

'If he wants the Nexus, we'll give him it,' said Phoebe. 'Just like with Zankou.'

'Using the same method that you used to defeat Zankou won't work… As I said before, Xalinth will be prepared. Even if you were to try the same method, the circumstances aren't the same as last time. Paige said that he is holding her charge – your innocent – prisoner. Even if you let Xalinth take control over the Nexus, astral in, and say the spell… There would be no way of saving the boy…' Leo put in plain words.

'With Xalinth expecting us, a surprise attack won't be simple either,' said Piper. 'Do we ambush the manor in an attempt to regain the location advantage, or..?' Piper trailed off, unsure of what other choices they had.

'Or do we attempt to get that boy out of there..?' Phoebe suggested. 'As long as we do that before Xalinth gets possession of the Nexus, it could work, and we could face Xalinth when we know the boy is safe.'

'Maybe your plan should include the fact that it's not just the three of you this time,' Leo pointed out. 'Aviva, Max, and Tyler are all capable of facing lesser demons. They can cause a distraction in the manor and possibly try to get your innocent to safety. Meanwhile the three of you can focus on a way to vanquish Xalinth; preferably before he succeeds at taking over the Nexus.'

...

The cavern below the basement of Halliwell manor currently housed only two occupants, Repugnus and Will. So much dust currently engulfed the atmosphere. This was caused by the rubble falling from the ceiling at each fireball blast. Therefore the only thing visible in amongst the dusty haze was each fireball that Repugnus incessantly threw towards the ceiling. The lack of visibility meant that Repugnus – and Xalinth when he was there earlier – could not see the hatch in the ceiling.

There was suddenly a cracking type sound as a long fissure appeared in the ceiling. The dust cloud around that particular area cleared, beaten down by the power emanating from the fissure.

Repugnus' eye's widened in a mixture of surprise and delight. 'I – I did it? Yes! I did it! I, Repugnus, succeeded in gaining access to the Nexus!'

From his position in the cavern, Will heard all of this. He rolled his eyes, which was a little pointless considering he was blindfolded and Repugnus was not even looking in his direction.

'You may have done it, but you're not the one who's going to be taking the Nexus in, are you? So you won't get any credit, or anything of that sort,' Will pointed out derisively.

Repugnus grimaced. 'It's not like he's here now…'

'Exactly, so really and truly, you could steal it for yourself,' Will encouraged the demon.

Repugnus grinned wickedly as he considered the idea. 'With the power of the Nexus inside me, Xalinth will be unable to stop me.'

Will nodded. 'Go ahead.'

Repugnus took a deep breath, preparing himself to say the spell that would release the Nexus. However, before Repugnus could get a word out of his mouth, he began to scream, bursting into flames. Simultaneously Xalinth flamed into the cavern. He scowled angrily at Will.

'You dastardly witch! You thought that forcing me to vanquish another of my minions would help the Charmed Ones? Well, you're wrong! I was out recruiting more minions!' yelled Xalinth.

Ten demons shimmered in around Xalinth. One of the demons stepped forward.

'Where is this?' the demon asked. 'This isn't the Underworld.'

Xalinth turned to the demon that had spoken. 'This is below the surface world, but not the Underworld. This is above the Underworld, but not above ground. This is in between the two… We're underground.'

'What is the mission you sent us here to do?' the demon asked.

'Go into the manor and blend in as mortal cops. When the Charmed Ones show up, get close enough to them to shimmer them down here,' instructed Xalinth.

'The Charmed Ones? Aren't they dead?' asked the demon.

Xalinth sneered. 'I met one of them and she's definitely alive. I believe her sisters are too.'

The demon frowned. 'Wait, but why would the Charmed Ones come bursting through the door of their house when there are mortals who think they are dead present?'

'Only the Charmed Ones know the answer to that,' Xalinth said. 'I saw it happen with my premonition power when I came face to face with the youngest Charmed One… Unfortunately it was all that I saw… Now go! Do what I have asked of you!'

The first demon bowed before shimmering out. The other nine demons followed the first demon's action.

...

The plan discussion in the hotel room was drawing to a close. However it was cut short by the formation of blue and white orbs around an open area of carpet in the hotel room. The orbs disappeared to reveal Paige. She smiled, trying to ignore the annoyed glare she was receiving from her eldest sister, the Piper's-gonna-kill-ya look she was getting from the middle sister, and the concerned look she was getting from her brother-in-law. Paige threw her bag onto the floor as she sat on the empty sofa to face the mixture of expressions.

'Paige, what are you doing here?' Leo asked. 'I thought we were going to meet you near Prescott Street when we had a plan prepared.'

Paige scoffed. 'Yeah, right. This is my charge. I am not going to sit on the sidelines and let you three do all the planning.'

'Paige…' said Piper, trying not to lose it. 'What part of 'it's not safe for you to be seen coming to this hotel' did you not understand?'

Paige shrugged casually. 'I kept to that.'

Piper raised an eyebrow. 'Er, no you didn't, Paige.'

'Er, yes I did, Piper,' said Paige. 'No one saw me come here. Even if someone happened to see me orb – which is impossible, because I made sure the coast was clear, like I always do – it would be impossible for them to know where I was orbing to.'

Piper muttered something under her breath, a little frustrated with her youngest sister's lack of worry for this sort of thing.

'So… Have I missed much?' Paige asked.

Phoebe handed Paige the Book of Shadows which was still open to the entry on Xalinth. Paige skim-read it in silence.

'We haven't figured out a solid plan yet, but we've got the basics sorted,' Phoebe started to say. 'He'll be expecting us to orb into that area below the basement…'

Paige looked up from the Book, shaking her head. 'Did I forget to mention that it's protected from orbing?'

Piper sighed. 'Then how exactly do we access it? We haven't exactly ever needed to make a teleportation potion before. I wouldn't even know how to specify the teleportation potion's destination. Then again, there's always a Create A Door spell in the Book. Maybe we could use that on the floor…'

Paige's eyes suddenly widened as she remembered something Sanders had mentioned. 'We already have a way in. There's a hatch in the basement floor.'

Piper shook her head. 'I think we'd know if such a thing existed, Paige. We have lived there for longer than you.'

'No. The hatch… It's recent,' Paige continued.

Phoebe said sarcastically, 'Oh sure. The demons decided to do a small renovation on the manor for us.'

Paige glowered at her sisters for their inability to listen. 'Not renovated by demons, Phoebe, but by a witch. Will! My charge. Our innocent. His power. He can create doors. He told me he faced Xalinth down there with his father. He must have created a hatch in the basement floor with his power, but forgotten to remove it in his rush to get out.'

'Okay… So that's access answered… Now how long do we leave it before we attack?' Piper asked.

'Well, we have to wait until we have all the necessary potions prepared,' Phoebe began.

Piper grimaced. 'That could take a while.'

'We should have time,' said Leo encouragingly. 'Xalinth won't hurt Will. The boy's the one factor that's stopping you from using the same method you used on Zankou, so Xalinth needs him alive.'

'Er… Will may not be the only person we have to worry about…' Paige said cautiously, knowing that what she was about to reveal was not going to help them one bit. 'The cops are currently working overtime in the basement to get access to that hatch in the floor…'

Piper closed her eyes in exasperation. 'Okay. Slight change of plan then…'

'We could always glamour…' Phoebe suggested.

Piper shook her head. 'I don't want to hide anymore.' Piper opened her eyes. 'Besides what is a better distraction for the demons than us outing ourselves to the cops?'

'Are you crazy?' Phoebe asked.

There was a knock on the door of the hotel room which interrupted the train of thought. Leo stood up and went over to the door, looking out through the peep hole before opening it.

'Er… Are we expecting visitors?' Paige asked her sisters quietly, noticing that none of them were worried about glamouring back into their disguises.

'Oh, did we forget to mention we have a few people helping us? They're all prior magical innocents,' Phoebe asked.

'Uh… yeah!' Paige said, annoyed that she was only finding this out as the three figures walked into the room.

Aviva was carrying four bulky plastic bags; similarly Max was carrying four bulky plastic bags; and finally Tyler was carrying a stack of pots that varied in size.

'Hey Paige!' said Tyler as he placed the pots down. He grimaced as he saw her broken arm. 'Ow. I bet you wish you still had a whitelighter as a brother-in-law.'

Paige smiled. 'Nah. It's okay. It will mend. How's the foster family, Tyler?'

'They're great,' said Tyler, smiling.

Paige turned to Aviva and Max. Paige was embarrassed that she did not recognise these two former innocents, but she did not want to admit it, so she said: 'And you too… I haven't seen you in so long… I, er–'

Phoebe almost laughed. 'Paige, you don't have to say that. You don't recognise them, because you have never met them.'

Paige blushed. 'That would make sense. Hi guys, I'm Paige.'

...

[Astral Vision]

Max had used his psychokinetic abilities to disable the smoke detector in the hotel room. The pots were distributed along a table. Each pot had different contents bubbling away inside. With the absence of a hob in the hotel room, Aviva was using her pyrokinesis to keep the pots heated. Piper was continually making her way through the ingredients that had been bought – chopping them, dicing them, mashing them up, or slicing them – and adding them to the pot that required them.

While Piper and Aviva worked on the potions, the other two Charmed Ones, their ex-whitelighter, and the remaining two former innocents worked on the rest of the plan. Phoebe was working with Max to come up with spells, and Paige was working with Tyler and Leo on tactics.

The battle was looming, yet Piper, Phoebe, and Leo had not yet come across the chance to discuss the fates of their individual identities after the battle was over.

'Tyler!' Piper called.

Tyler looked over at Piper. 'Yeah?'

'Do you still want your powers back?' Piper asked, her question accompanied by a small smile.

The anti-binding potion was ready. Piper used a spoon to scoop the potion out of its pot into a small mug. Tyler grinned. Almost tripping over Paige and Leo in his enthusiasm to get to the mug, Tyler ran over to the table that Piper was standing at.

Steam was rising from the mug. Piper had only put a very tiny amount into the mug, but much effervescence was still being produced by the potion. Taking a very brief second to consider the option of not drinking it, Tyler took a sip. He closed his eyes as he swallowed the potion.

'Do you feel any different?' Piper asked.

Without opening his eyes, Tyler put his hands to his temples and focused on an image in his mind. Suddenly the fire that was keeping the pot that contained the anti-binding potion heated went out.

'Hey!' Aviva yelled at Tyler.

Tyler smirked, taking his hands away from his temples, and opening his eyes. 'I told you my powers were better than yours.'

Aviva rolled her eyes. 'We'll see about that when we're faced with the real test of battling demons.'

Piper interrupted the trading of comments with a remark of her own: 'Stop yammering and help me bottle the rest of the potions. They're all done and we're going to need them.'

Aviva and Tyler sighed. They picked up some of the glass vials that Aviva had managed to buy while in Chinatown, and began to fill each with specific potions. While they were doing that, Piper walked over to Paige and Leo.

'I am really not looking forward to Wyatt and Chris' teenage years,' said Piper. 'It's exhausting enough trying to keep our pyromaniacs over there from squabbling. It's going to be a lot worse with two teenage whitelighter-witches.'

'I'm not a teenager!' Aviva yelled without turning around from the table.

Piper rolled her eyes and said more quietly so as only her youngest sister and husband could hear: 'Then quit acting like one.' Piper sat down next to Leo, putting her head on his shoulder. 'Are we ready to go?'

'We as in only you, Phoebe, Paige, Max, Aviva, and Tyler?' asked Leo. 'Or is there a chance that I may be included in that?'

Piper sighed. 'Honey, you know it's not safe… You're mortal…' Sitting up to include Paige in the discussion, Piper added, 'So what's the plan we've finalised on?'

...

Riley and Sanders walked through the front doors of Halliwell manor. As they walked through the manor, they noticed men in police uniform stationed around the main floor.

Riley frowned. 'I didn't ask for that much backup. We only required people for moving the beam in the basement.'

Sanders shrugged. 'Maybe the chief overcompensated for the lack of men we've had here over the past month.'

'Maybe,' mumbled Riley. 'Except I don't recognise any of these guys…'

Once again Sanders shrugged. 'Anyway as I was saying before: Miss Matthews dodged every single one of my questions. I think her sisters are still alive and she knows it. She's hiding something.'

'You don't think she's behind it, do you?' asked a surprised Riley. After all, it was Sanders that had suggested a hypothesis that favoured the three sisters as innocent people earlier that day.

'I don't know what to think,' replied Sanders grimly.

The detective and the inspector had reached the basement door. It was open, but a yellow police crime scene tape was fixed across the entrance from the left side to the right side of the door frame. The duo ducked beneath the tape and stood at the top of the wooden staircase to look down at the activity in the basement below.

Four men in hard hats, gloves, goggles and other protective gear were assessing how to break the beam apart. The men were using markers to indicate where on the beam to cut. Two saws and a few other tools were placed on the bottom steps of the basement staircase, ready to be used when the men were ready to start work on the beam.

'How long do you think this is going to take?' Riley called down to the four men.

All four men looked up at the two police officers. One of the men answered, 'Another couple of hours. We're going to need a harness in here too to hoist this beam up once we've broken it into two or three pieces.'

Riley let out a frustrated sigh. 'This is taking far too long.'

The two police officers left the basement, finding their way out of the manor.

...

In the cavern below the basement, Xalinth had begun to chant the incantation that would release the Nexus, giving him the power that he desired. Will struggled against the chains that kept him connected to the wall. He moved his head closer to his shoulder in an attempt to brush the blindfold away from his eyes so as he could at least use his power to help escape. His efforts at any form of freedom were unsuccessful.

...

The front door of the manor burst open. Piper, Phoebe, and Paige stood on the porch.

'Look who's just got home,' Piper said with a smirk.

The ten demonic policemen, all of whom had stationed themselves in that area of the house, began to throw fireballs in the direction of the three sisters.

'Woah!' Piper shouted, holding her hands out in front of her. The ten fireballs stopped mid-air. Piper grinned. 'I wonder who's going to be my first demon vanquish? I mean, it has been a while… Who to pick? Who to pick?'

Paige rolled her eyes. 'Since you won't make your mind up…' Paige swept both her hands outwards and the fireballs began to return to the demon that had sent each one. Only after this action did she remember that she had forgotten to say: 'Fireballs!'

Only one of the demons was too slow to react. He was engulfed in flames as his own fireball vanquished him. The other nine shimmered out of the way. However, only eight shimmered back in. The ninth had presumably shimmered down to the cavern to report to Xalinth that the Charmed Ones were in the manor. Three of the demons shimmered in around Piper; two shimmered in around Phoebe; and three shimmered in around Paige.

Piper flicked her wrists and one of the demons around her burst into flames. 'I told them I would be able to control it this time!' she said, smirking. She followed this up by flicking her wrists twice more, vanquishing the following two demons in a burst of flames.

The two demons were approaching Phoebe side by side. Phoebe did not react. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. The demons floated up into the air before being thrown across the room. Phoebe opened her eyes and smiled.

The three remaining demons were surrounding Paige. She did not seem fazed at all. 'What are you going to do? Orb me into a wall?' one of the demons asked mockingly. His comment was accompanied by scornful laughs from the other two demons. Paige shook her head. Placing both arms out in front of her, she shot flames from her hands.

More demons, possibly reinforcement, shimmered in – including the two that Phoebe had thrown across the room. They approached the Charmed Ones.

One of the demons was scowling. 'You've been away for a while and now you've come back with different powers? You still won't be able to defeat Xalinth. Now come with us, and we can take you straight to him.'

Piper, Phoebe, and Paige exchanged confident expressions before turning back to the demons.

'Nah. I think we'll stay up here. Vanquishing you lot seems like more fun,' said Piper assertively.

'Then we'll have to make you go down there by force,' said the demon that had spoken initially.

'You can try,' said Phoebe. 'I don't think it will work.'

Turning to Paige, Piper said, 'I bet I can fry more demons than you.'

Paige laughed. 'Deal. If you actually had an income, I probably would bet twenty bucks.'

Piper frowned irritably. 'I may be younger than you, but I do get pocket money!'

Paige rolled her eyes. 'You are definitely the little brother that I am glad I never had.'

'Av, Ty! Focus!' Phoebe said sincerely.

The demons were rightfully puzzled by this banter going on between the Charmed Ones, but decided to ignore it and attack. The supposed Charmed Ones were ready to continue the fight with the demons on this floor…

...

Meanwhile the four workmen were working alone in the basement. They were the only ones there. No one noticed the tape fall off the basement entrance or the multiple footsteps sounding on the wooden steps.

'Oh my gosh, Phoebe. Did you have to wear such noisy high heels when we're trying to sneak around?' hissed an invisible Piper.

'Sorry,' an invisible Phoebe whispered quietly.

'Let's just hope the demons don't figure out that the three people they're fighting in the hallway aren't us,' whispered an invisible Paige.

The four workmen suddenly froze in their positions due to the unseen use of an invisible Piper's power.

'Paige,' invisible Piper said as a cue for invisible Paige to take her turn.

'Okay, but I keep telling you that orbing multiple people away is going to be difficult with only one arm!' invisible Paige said grumpily. Noisy footsteps were heard as she ran down the stairs. The sound of someone orbing could be heard as the four men disappeared, even though the blue and white orbs themselves were not visible. The jingling sound occurred again as the invisible Paige returned alone. 'I'm back. Your turn again, Piper.'

With another flick of her invisible wrists, the unseen eldest Charmed One blew up the beam that had been blocking the hatch. The sound of footsteps running down the basement staircase was audible as the invisible occupants of the basement made their way towards the hatch.

...

Xalinth stood in the middle of the cavern with his eyes closed. A demon shimmered in next to him.

'Why aren't they here yet?' Xalinth asked, his voice deeper than it had been previously. The power of the Nexus had affected him. 'You told me that they had arrived at the manor, so why aren't they down here yet?'

'They aren't being cooperative,' said the demon.

'So force them,' said Xalinth angrily. 'I chose your clan of demons for a reason. You have a higher resistance than most normal demons to the abilities that make the Charmed Ones strong adversaries: Telekinesis and the power to freeze.'

The demon sighed helplessly. 'Yes, but… They seem to have some surprises up their sleeves… Powers that they've never possessed before…'

Xalinth finally opened his eyes at this revelation. He no longer had any pupils. His eyes were engulfed in the darkness that came with the possession of the Nexus.

Unnoticed by Xalinth and the demon, the hatch opened. Fortunately for the invisible intruders, there was a poorly crafted set of stone steps leading down from the ceiling that they could use.

'You have the power over the Nexus. You have the power to defeat them,' said the demon. 'Why not go up there and attack them?'

Xalinth scowled. 'I have the best advantages down here! Down here, they can't orb out to safety. Down here, they can't do anything that could risk injuring their innocent! Don't you dare act as if I do not know why I am doing the things I am doing! I always have my reasons.'

'I do apologise,' said the demon, bowing timidly.

Will had been listening to all of this from his position by the wall. Although he could not see anything, he had a good idea of what was going on thanks to the consistent stream of demons that kept shimmering in to report the upstairs events to Xalinth.

Will was shocked when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It could not possibly be Xalinth or the demon minion he was speaking to, because they were still speaking and their voices appeared to be coming from across the cavern.

'Will,' a voice said very quietly – Paige's voice. 'Don't say a word or move a muscle. We're here to help.'

Will nodded. Someone removed the blindfold from his face, but when he looked around all he saw was the blindfold fall to the floor. He could not see Paige or anyone else around him, yet he was sure he had heard her voice moments earlier. The only individuals he could see in the cavern were the distant figures of the two conversing demons.

There was a small explosion near his left wrist and almost immediately after there was a small explosion near his right wrist. Will's arms fell forward as the now-broken chains no longer held his arms back.

Will stood up a little puzzled as to what was going on. He felt a hand grab his hand. At the point of contact, Will noticed his own arm fading away. After a couple of seconds, he realised that he was now invisible too.

'Follow me,' said the voice of an invisible male – Leo. 'The girls will deal with Xalinth.'

The other demon had shimmered out moments before. Therefore, as the hatch slammed shut due to Will and Leo making their exit, Xalinth heard it. His eyes darted in that direction. Quickly connecting the dots as to who had just opened and shut the hatch that he had never noticed before this instant, Xalinth's eyes darted over to the wall where the broken chains lay. Since the invisible Charmed Ones stood between the wall with the chains and Xalinth, they were able to look directly at the demon.

'Uh… Piper, Paige…' invisible Phoebe suddenly whispered to her invisible sisters, noticing the demon's demeanour. 'I think we're too late to stop Xalinth from taking over the Nexus…'

'Reveal yourselves! I know you're there!' Xalinth shouted, the deepened voice echoing throughout the cavern. He was still staring at the wall with the chains. 'You may be hidden, but I can see you!'

Phoebe muttered a spell under her breath, taking the invisibility spell off her and her sisters. They were standing in a line, holding each others' hands tightly. Paige was on the far left, Piper was in the middle, and Phoebe was on the far right.

'There's no way we can use the Power of Three spell that we prepared while he's possessed by the Nexus,' muttered Phoebe.

Piper let out a sigh. 'Great,' she whispered sarcastically. 'Well, we know the spell that will vanquish him, even if it looks like the spell does not destroy the Nexus like the Elders thought…' Piper strengthened her grip on Phoebe's left hand and Paige's right hand. 'No astral projections for us this time… We can't get out of this one…'

Paige gulped. 'How ironic. I am going to die right after coming back from the dead.'

Phoebe furrowed her brow. 'Well, at least you had a chance to come back from the dead. Piper and I are going to remain dead. No brief reappearance in the land of the living for us.'

The Charmed Ones accepted their fate and began to chant the spell together: 'From ancient time this power ca–'

Xalinth swept his hands forward, blasting a shadow-like force towards the three sisters. The three sisters let go of one another's hands as they flew across the cavern in different directions, causing a halt in their spell casting. Piper flew backwards, hitting the wall with the chains; Phoebe flew to the side into the poorly crafted stone steps; and Paige flew to the side into another wall of the cavern.

Piper scrambled to her feet, untangling herself from the chains that she had fallen into. Limping due to an injured left ankle, Piper began to approach Xalinth. She flicked her wrists, but the blast of her power did little to impact Xalinth.

As she continued to limp towards him, Piper began to say, 'From ancient time this power came, for all to–'

The powerful demon swept his arms upwards, telekinetically sending Piper up into the air. Holding his hand out, Xalinth managed to leave the eldest Charmed One suspended in mid-air, telekinetically.

'For all to have but none to reign,' Phoebe continued, as she began to stagger in the direction of Xalinth. Blood was running down her face due to a deep cut on her forehead. However she did not care. With what they were about to do, injuries did not matter. 'Take it now, show no m–'

Phoebe was interrupted as she dived out of the way of a shadow-like blast that Xalinth threw her way with the hand that was not focused on keeping Piper suspended in the air.

'Take it now, show no mercy,' Paige continued loudly. She had only just stood up from the wall that she had been thrown into. Her broken arm had fallen out of the sling, but she paid no attention to the pain. Her concentration was on continuing the spell. 'For this power ca–'

Releasing Piper from her telekinetic suspension, Xalinth threw a shadow-like blast at Paige. Forgetting that the cavern was protected by an anti-orbing spell, Paige staid in the path of the blast while she attempted to orb out of the way. As a result, Paige was hit by the blast, pushing her back into the wall again. Both Piper and Paige were knocked out – Piper, from crashing onto the floor from such a height, and Paige, from the impact of hitting the wall again.

Xalinth looked down at Phoebe who was the only Charmed One that was still conscious. 'After all I've heard, I thought there was more of a challenge involved in defeating the Charmed Ones. The three of you must have gone soft in your time off. Yet it is slightly ironic that the last one standing is the psychic Charmed One. Demonic Seer versus clairvoyant witch it is…'

Phoebe scowled, managing to get to her feet. 'They'll survive. We all will. We're going to survive long enough to take you down with us. And for your information, unless you want my baby – not that I have one – you're never going to be the worst Seer I've ever faced.'

Phoebe ran forward, planting a kick against Xalinth, but the demon grabbed her leg and threw her across the cavern.

...

[Astral Vision]

As soon as Leo and Will had left the basement, the spell that had been keeping them invisible wore off. There was only one reason this would happen, and Leo realised it straight away. Piper, Phoebe, and Paige had taken the spell off themselves, because Xalinth knew they were in the cavern.

Leo turned to Will. 'Will, you have to tell me. Had Xalinth already absorbed the power of the Nexus?' When Will nodded, Leo's worried expression grew even more worried. 'No… They've only got one option now… And it's not a good one…'

Leo and Will found Max, Tyler, and Aviva – no longer glamoured to look like the Charmed Ones – pacing around in the living room. When they saw Leo and Will, the three of them stopped pacing and turned to face Leo.

'We continued the attack on the demons, but they stopped coming a few minutes ago,' began Max.

'I think they didn't have anymore demons left to send our way,' said Tyler triumphantly.

'Or something happened down there that caused the main guy to call off the onslaught up here,' added Aviva.

Leo sighed. 'I think Xalinth knows Piper, Phoebe, and Paige are down there. He's already taken over the Nexus, which leaves them with only one choice, but I can't let it happen.'

'What choice? What's the choice?' Will asked.

'You've heard the stories, Will,' said Leo. 'The same way they defeated Zankou, except this time they didn't astral project there.'

'Why..? Why didn't they astral project down there?' Will asked.

'They had to help you, that's why,' said Leo gravely.

'We have to go back down there!' Will said determinedly.

'I agree with the new kid,' said Tyler.

'We can't let them sacrifice themselves,' agreed Aviva.

'There's three witches, a Firestarter, and an ex-whitelighter here. Surely there's a way the five of us can help the three of them,' said Max.

Tyler pulled a few potion vials out of his pockets. 'Did they take any potions down there with them?'

Leo shook his head. 'There was no point. None of the potions you made earlier would have been strong enough to vanquish Xalinth, with or without the Nexus on his side.'

Aviva removed as many as ten potion vials from her bag. 'We're in the famous Halliwell manor, aren't we? Is there anything here that could help?'

'If there was, we wouldn't have been put in the situation we were in when up against Zankou,' said Leo, wiping his brow with his hand.

Max emptied his pockets of the potion vials he had on him. 'We've got some dispossession potions… Is it not possible to strengthen them?'

'No,' said Leo. 'If it was, we would have done it last ti–' Leo stopped for a second. 'Hang on, the reason we did not try that last time was because our aim was to destroy the Nexus as well as vanquish Zankou… Follow me to the kitchen and only bring the vials containing dispossession potions.'

'Are you sure there'll be any leftover stuff to use in the kitchen? This place hasn't had permanent residents for over a month,' Tyler pointed out.

'Food may have a sell-by date, but potion ingredients tend to be long lasting,' countered Leo.

Everyone except for Will began to walk towards the kitchen. 'Wait!' said Will. He continued when everyone had stopped to turn and face him. 'What do we do if mortals enter the manor?'

'They won't,' said Aviva. 'Piper, Phoebe, and Paige performed a spell on the house after entering with Leo. The spell stops any mortal from gaining access. They can leave, but not enter.'

'Which is why I am not leaving until I have my wife by my side,' said Leo. 'Now come on! We don't have time to waste!'

...

Phoebe got to her feet again. She was not going to give up. She decided to employ a new tactic, a tactic that took her back a few years.

'I am light, I am one too strong to fight,' Phoebe began to mutter.

Xalinth would have rolled his eyes if his pupils were visible. Instead he sneered. 'Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe. I may have absorbed the Nexus, but that spell only works on the Woogyman. I'm no Woogyman.'

'Return to dark where shadows dwell,' Phoebe continued before responding with: 'Yes, but I did do a psychology degree and one of the things I remember is that hearing something familiar can help bring a person back to consciousness… You cannot have…'

'…this Halliwell,' murmured Piper as she got to her feet.

Piper and Phoebe were to either side of Xalinth, the demon being in between the two conscious Charmed Ones.

'What does it matter that she's awake? I can defeat you, whether there are one, two, or three of you against me at once,' said Xalinth, unfazed. 'The only reason I haven't done it yet is because I have been assessing how big a threat you are… Something you have failed at abysmally.'

Piper began to incessantly flick her wrists towards Xalinth. Although each individual blast made little to no impact on the demon, the increasing number of blasts managed to make an impact, causing Xalinth to lose his balance. Phoebe took this chance to drop to the ground and swing kick the demon in the ankles.

While Xalinth was temporarily down, Piper and Phoebe ran over to Paige.

'Paige,' Piper whispered.

Paige's eyes fluttered open, a little blearily. Piper and Phoebe helped Paige to her feet. Supporting Paige between the two of them, the three sisters faced Xalinth who eerily levitated onto his feet.

'Xalinth!' Paige managed to say, sweeping her right arm outwards. Despite the anti-orbing spell, the whitelighter-witch's telekinetic orbing still worked in its usual way. In a blur of blue and white orbs, Xalinth went flying into the corner of the cavern.

Supporting one another, the three sisters ran over to the corner where Xalinth lay. Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were ready to begin reciting the same spell as earlier; the spell that would vanquish Xalinth, and seal – not destroy – the Nexus back up, but also kill the three of them. Xalinth stood up and stared at his three adversaries.

All of a sudden, there was a noise as the hatch was opened and Leo came running down the shoddy stone steps and into the cavern. He yelled the word: 'Duck!'

Without hesitation, the three Charmed Ones ducked. Leo threw the potion at Xalinth. The demon lurched forward as smoke erupted from him. The Nexus was leaving him. A waft of smoke made its way back to the fissure in the ceiling, soon sealing itself up. The sisters staggered backwards. Realising what was going on, Piper muttered the words: 'The Power of Three spell. The one to vanquish Xalinth. We can do it now.'

Piper moved in between Phoebe and Paige, taking each of their hands. Xalinth was struggling to get back onto his feet. The act of having the Nexus taken out of him had drained him almost completely.

'Powerful Seer that likes to work in secret,' Piper began. Her focus was almost entirely on reciting this spell. She did not notice that Leo was still in the cavern, standing to one side of the sisters.

'To vanquish you from head to foot,' continued Phoebe. After being so prepared for this to end so differently, the idea that they were going to survive had added to Phoebe's determination.

'We call upon the Power of Three,' continued Paige. The youngest Charmed One was ready to get this vanquish over and done with. Now that she was back in the real world, and knew she was going to survive, she wanted to get her life started up again.

Xalinth was slowly getting to his feet. The sisters noticed this, but did not want to give him any chances by stopping their chanting. They remained where they were and continued. An energy ball formed in the demon's hand. If they moved now, Xalinth would get the chance to recover and attack again before the spell was complete. Vanquishing the demon was more important than saving themselves.

'Finish the spell!' Leo shouted, diving between the sisters and the demon to block the path of the energy ball that Xalinth had released in their direction.

'Leo!' Piper shouted as Leo skidded to the ground, struck down by the energy ball.

Keeping a tight grip on Piper's hands to stop her running over to Leo, Phoebe and Paige concluded the spell: 'Here and now we end thee!'

Xalinth burst into flames as the effects of the vanquishing spell worked their magic.

Managing to free herself from Phoebe and Paige's grasps, Piper ran – as fast as her injuries would allow – over to Leo's side. The side of Leo's torso was bleeding, exposing a gash caused by the energy ball. Piper knelt down by her husband, hugging him. Leo's eyelids wavered a little before he opened his eyes. Noticing his wife hugging him, Leo returned the hug.

...

The three sisters and Leo entered the living room. Aviva, Max, Tyler, and Will all had relieved looks on their faces. Despite the multiple injuries, the Charmed Ones and their ex-whitelighter had survived the battle.

'Xalinth's gone for good?' questioned Will.

Phoebe nodded. 'I wish we could say the same about the Nexus, but that's definitely not going anywhere.'

'The demon may be gone, but are you guys officially back?' Max asked.

Piper, Phoebe, and Paige exchanged questioning looks.

'You may want to decide soon, because the cops have been hammering on the front door for the past half hour or so trying to regain entry,' Aviva added.

Paige sighed. 'Okay. Can the four of you leave via the back door? Try not to let anyone see you. The four of us are staying here.'

'Keep in touch,' said Aviva with a smile.

'Don't die on us again,' added a smirking Tyler.

'I think he means what we're all thinking: Be careful,' said Max.

All that Will could find suitable to say was: 'Thank you.'

With those words, the four of them walked towards the back of the manor, looking for an exit. Now alone in the living room, the Charmed Ones and Leo wondered what they were going to do.

'Are we orbing out, or are we staying put?' Paige asked her sisters.

Phoebe smiled. 'Staying put. Definitely.'

'Then how do we explain this to the cops outside?' Paige asked.

'We're going to improvise,' said Piper, heading for the front door. She began to mutter under her breath the reversal to the anti-entry-for-mortals spell.

The front door suddenly burst open. Riley and Sanders were about to make a comment to one another about the door suddenly opening, but what they saw stunned them. In the front hall of Halliwell manor stood the two presumed dead Halliwell sisters, the recently found third sister, and the missing husband of the eldest Halliwell sister.

Finding his voice, Riley said, 'Mrs. Halliwell… Miss Halliwell… Miss Matthews… Mr. Wyatt… Care to explain what you are doing here?'

'Do we have to have this conversation at the door? I think I could do with a doctor right about now,' Piper said, hoping to give herself, her sisters, and her husband a little longer to go over a story together.

...

July 8th 2005

Piper walked into the kitchen of Halliwell manor with a few shopping bags. It had been a week since the battle against Xalinth, as well as a week since Piper, Phoebe, and Leo had followed Paige in making a return to their normal living lives. Within the last couple of days, local authorities had deemed the manor structurally safe enough to live in, allowing the sisters and Leo to return to their home.

From the battle, Piper, Phoebe, and Leo had a few wounds that would not take long to heal. Meanwhile, Paige was stuck with a sling and cast for her arm that would take another six weeks. They had no whitelighter to call for and heal them magically, so modern medicine was the only choice available.

Piper placed the shopping bags on the counter and began to empty the contents into the fridge, freezer, or cupboards. Considering the lack of life within the manor over the past months, they had needed to do an entire food restock for the kitchen.

Leo entered the kitchen with a few more shopping bags. He placed them on the kitchen table. Paige also entered the kitchen. Walking to either side of her were Wyatt and Chris. Lastly Phoebe entered the kitchen. Her eyes were glued on the copy of the Bay Mirror that she was holding open in her hands.

The article that she was reading had the headline 'Story Surrounding Sisters' Survival Secret.' Accompanying the headline was a subheading that read 'The police have revealed to the Bay Mirror the story behind the basement blast.' The article was relatively low key and had no photo.

'A week ago, it was revealed that Paige Matthews, 27, was found in the basement of 1329 Prescott Street approximately twenty hours before Piper Halliwell, 31, Phoebe Halliwell, 29, and Leo Wyatt, 31, were found alive, but injured in the manor.

The Halliwell family have been unavailable for interview, despite Phoebe Halliwell being an employee of this paper. Until today, the police have not been able to release any statements concerning what happened. Today, the Bay Mirror has managed to secure an exclusive statement from the officers in charge of the Halliwell case, Detective Gordon Riley, 38, and Inspector David Sanders, 32.

In the statement released by the officers, a gas leak occurred within the basement of 1329 Prescott Street on the day of May 22nd. 'All we can disclose is that the blast involved a gas leak and a spark. The sisters were able to get to the safety of a shelter beneath the basement, but the debris sealed the hatch shut.'

I asked the officers – if this was so, why was Paige Matthews found separately to the other sisters? Sanders reply was: 'From the accounts that the family have given us, we believe that Miss Matthews managed to get out on the afternoon of June 30th. However before her sisters could follow, a loose beam fell. Miss Matthews sustained injuries from this loose beam. After being released from hospital, she went to find her brother-in-law for help instead of confiding in the police. Miss Matthews and Mr. Wyatt returned to the manor and attempted to release the Halliwell sisters from the trapped hatch themselves. This act, alone, has been deemed extremely irresponsible and unsafe. The SFPD want to reinforce the suggestion that this sort of thing is best left in the control of authority figures or professionals.'

Finally, I said to the officers – Originally, Victor Bennett [56], the father of two of the sisters, was a suspect in this case. Where do you stand on that? Riley replied with: 'We have already made a public apology to Mr. Bennett. All allegations have been dropped. We were only following a lead, and a number of random factors – the deeds and the money from the bank account. All he was ever suspected of was having knowledge of where they were – a fact proved wrong by the outcome of events.'

It took over a month for this story to come to a close. However, with the mystery over, a family is reunited and able to return to their normal lives.'

'Ha!' Phoebe laughed out loud as she placed the newspaper on the table. 'Normal. Yeah, right.'

'What's that?' Piper asked, shutting the fridge.

'Just the paper. The demons know we're back, so any hopes of a normal life are gone, right?' Phoebe said, letting out a sigh.

'Doesn't mean I'm not going to try,' Piper said resolutely.

'Well, I guess we knew our vacation away from all of this was never going to last,' Paige said, who was currently sat at the kitchen table.

This statement was followed by a brief pause. Phoebe was the first to break the pause.

'I should really head off to work,' said Phoebe. 'That way I can see if I still have a job.'

Piper looked over at Phoebe and said, 'While you're there, can you kick that reporter's as–' Piper paused, remembering innocent ears were present in the kitchen. '–can you find the reporter that wrote that article about Dad the other week? He got Chris' age wrong.'

Phoebe smiled, trying to hold in a laugh.

'What?' Piper said with embarrassment. 'Chris isn't one. He's eight months old – or at least he was when that article came out.'

'Okay, Piper. I'll do that,' said Phoebe, still trying not to laugh. Phoebe left the kitchen.

Leo pulled a plastic covering that contained a new set of curtains out of one of the bags. Paige smiled when she saw the curtains.

'I can't believe the cops were convinced that we had no idea how the front room curtains caught on fire the other week,' Paige said.

Piper frowned. 'Leo, put the curtains down. We'll get those up later.'

Leo put them down. 'Fair point. We've got a busy day ahead of us.'

Paige furrowed her brow. 'What's happening?'

Piper looked over at Paige. 'Leo and I were going to go to Dad's with Wyatt and Chris to get the deeds to the manor and P3 back. Want to come with?'

Paige shook her head. 'Nah. Phoebe's got stuff to do, and you've got stuff to do. That kind of shows me that I need to go and find myself a life to live.' With those words, Paige stood up and left the kitchen.

Leo chuckled. 'Did Paige basically just say that she's got nothing to do, but decide not to come with anyway?'

Piper smiled. 'Yeah. Don't worry. She'll probably keep using that excuse whenever she's asked to do something she doesn't want to do.'

Piper picked up Chris while Leo took Wyatt's hand. The family of four made their way out of the kitchen.

Their lives were back to normal to the extent of living back at the manor, back with Wyatt and Chris, and back to how everything was before the battle against Zankou. However, they had to accept that, like the previous seven years (four for Paige), they were going to have to try and live as normal lives as possible around their magical heritage.

---

Next episode: When the sisters receive a call for help from a witch that happens to be dating a demon, Phoebe is the expert on the matter.

---

[Esmeralda]

Just finished reading the first chapter and definitely thought that it would've made a much-better Season Eight opener than "Still Charmed and Kicking". I love that being glamoured wasn't as easy as the Charmed Ones thought it would be at the end of Season Seven (thoroughly detested that scene!) and that they didn't tell Victor or try to see the boys. I also loved that they are indeed "Mostly Charmed

I love the idea of so many past innocents making it to the funeral and also the implication that many of them made it to Prue's funeral, too. Of course they couldn't show that on the show, since it would've been too expensive, but I'm glad you included them.

You have the sisters down just right and that always makes fanfics more fun to read.

I love how you have the cops looking at Victor as the one who killed the sisters - Piper truly set him up for that with giving him everything before the battle. Great job.

Given how you're truly having them try to stay hidden (and I loved the bit with Paige and Sam regarding that - who better than him knew how to do such things?), I don't think all three of them and Leo would all go to the funeral together, since it would be similar to what they talked about in going to see Victor. I think Piper and Leo would go together (a couple would bring no extra looks) and then, later, Phoebe and Paige would. But that's the only piece that didn't make sense, and compared to "Still Charmed and Kicking"...great job!

I don't care for Will any more than I cared for Billie, so I hope he doesn't become the star of Eight the way that Billie was the star of Season Eight - this episode was much more about him than it was about the Charmed Ones, the same way that "Still Charmed and Kicking" was more about introducing Billie than it was about the Charmed Ones.

If he's just their innocent in this episode, and he's the reason why they come out of hiding, like Paige already has, that's fine, but I hope these first two chapters are the last we'll see of him, or I probably won't want to keep reading.

The other thing that disappointed me is that you didn't fix Kern's biggest mistake in Season Seven - the Shadow (aka Woogeyman aka Woogs) was vanquished, not the Nexus. The Nexus can't be vanquished. It's not a physical thing that can be vanquished; it's a location. Per "Is There a Woogy in the House?":

[Cut to the office. They’re looking at maps.]

Prue: Okay, to find a way back in, we have to know what we’re up against. The professor said that a true spiritual nexus sits equidistant from the five basal elements. So, that’s earth, fire, water, wood and metal.

Piper: Okey-dokey. Equidistant. Here is the manor.

Prue: All right. (Prue puts a dot on it.) Uh, the Bay, water.

(Prue puts a dot there.)

Piper: Natural hot springs?

Prue: Fire. What about wood? That park that mum used to take us to. Kenwood.

Piper: Named after the type of tree that grew there when it was still a forest.

Prue: Okay. Three out of five. Earth.

Piper: Twin Peaks. Highest point in the city.

Prue: And last but not least, metal.

Piper: Tiffany’s.

Prue: Cute. Natural metal. Okay, fourth grade field trip, we panned for gold. Where was that?

(She points to a place and they put a dot on it. Prue joins the dots with a pen and it turns into a star.)

Piper: Our house was built in the centre of a pentagram.

Prue: Looks like it’s not just on a spiritual nexus, but a wiccan one as well. Which means it’s a battleground for good and evil.

Piper: And what happens when evil gets the house?

Prue: It spreads. We’d have to check the Book of Shadows to be sure, but I bet that there’s a reason why our family built the house there. To reclaim the spot for good.

The only way to "vanquish" the Nexus is to destroy one of those elements.

I was so hoping you'd fix that mistake, but I guess not.



Gotta get to work, but definitely plan on reading more.

[Astral Vision]

Sept 1, 2013 7:28:08 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

I don't care for Will any more than I cared for Billie, so I hope he doesn't become the star of Eight the way that Billie was the star of Season Eight - this episode was much more about him than it was about the Charmed Ones, the same way that "Still Charmed and Kicking" was more about introducing Billie than it was about the Charmed Ones.

If he's just their innocent in this episode, and he's the reason why they come out of hiding, like Paige already has, that's fine, but I hope these first two chapters are the last we'll see of him, or I probably won't want to keep reading.

Thanks for letting me know your opinion on the first chapter. You'll be happy to know that Will (and I have only just realised right at this moment how similar a name Will is to Billie despite the gender differences in this case) is literally just an innocent and/or charge for the two parter.

[Astral Vision]

Sept 1, 2013 7:28:08 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

The other thing that disappointed me is that you didn't fix Kern's biggest mistake in Season Seven - the Shadow (aka Woogeyman aka Woogs) was vanquished, not the Nexus. The Nexus can't be vanquished. It's not a physical thing that can be vanquished; it's a location. Per "Is There a Woogy in the House?"...

The only way to "vanquish" the Nexus is to destroy one of those elements.

I was so hoping you'd fix that mistake, but I guess not.



Gotta get to work, but definitely plan on reading more.

I'll admit that's a fault. It's difficult to keep continuity with the show when the show itself has so many continuity issues, so I had to try and work around it.

Although I guess the best way around it is: As you may have noticed at the end of chapter one, Paige found out that they had not succeeded in destroying the Nexus at the end of season seven. Therefore the fact that the original spell to rid of the Nexus only worked to vanquish Zankou, this could suggest that the spell does not destroy the Nexus, because as you said, the Nexus cannot be destroyed unless you destroy one of the elements that Prue and Piper worked out on that map. I hadn't actually thought that through while writing the chapters, so although the sisters never mention a reason why the original Nexus spell didn't work the first time, it's perfectly reasonable to assume it's due to what you said about the Nexus.

As far as taking control of the Nexus goes, I think that part still works in that the demons can use the basement to take in the power, as it's the central point of the Nexus...

[Chrisaholic]

Good story. Agree with Es about the new opening for S8. I've done this too but isn't published yet. But with a different ending for S7 as well. You can find my stories on FF.net as well.

[Astral Vision]

Sept 1, 2013 8:59:29 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Good story. Agree with Es about the new opening for S8. I've done this too but isn't published yet. But with a different ending for S7 as well. You can find my stories on FF.net as well.

Thanks. Your FF.net account is ChrisAdorer or something along those lines, isn't it? I'll take a look at some of your stories.

[Chrisaholic]

Quite right. As you may have noticed, I like Chris a lot and this is truly in my stories too. Just take a look and tell me your opinion then.

[Astral Vision]

-_- And I have also just remembered Zankou's first attempt on gaining control of the entity in the basement that I am not even sure what to name now, in Scry Hard, where Leo ends up taking it in. I am suddenly getting sick of the Nexus and/or Woogyman. Fortunately, I won't be writing about that particular basement dwelling source of power in any future fan fics.

[Esmeralda]

Sept 1, 2013 8:07:44 GMT -5 Astral Vision said:

Sept 1, 2013 7:28:08 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

I don't care for Will any more than I cared for Billie, so I hope he doesn't become the star of Eight the way that Billie was the star of Season Eight - this episode was much more about him than it was about the Charmed Ones, the same way that "Still Charmed and Kicking" was more about introducing Billie than it was about the Charmed Ones.

If he's just their innocent in this episode, and he's the reason why they come out of hiding, like Paige already has, that's fine, but I hope these first two chapters are the last we'll see of him, or I probably won't want to keep reading.

Thanks for letting me know your opinion on the first chapter. You'll be happy to know that Will (and I have only just realised right at this moment how similar a name Will is to Billie despite the gender differences in this case) is literally just an innocent and/or charge for the two parter.

Hehehehe, yes, I do think that the similarities in the name is part of what turned me off, although I didn't like him before we knew his name, mainly because the first episode of the new season was all about him with him as heroic as Billie. So I'm very happy to know that he's just that episode's innocent and won't keep showing up as Billie's charge.

[Esmeralda]

Sept 1, 2013 8:18:11 GMT -5 Astral Vision said:

Sept 1, 2013 7:28:08 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

The other thing that disappointed me is that you didn't fix Kern's biggest mistake in Season Seven - the Shadow (aka Woogeyman aka Woogs) was vanquished, not the Nexus. The Nexus can't be vanquished. It's not a physical thing that can be vanquished; it's a location. Per "Is There a Woogy in the House?"...

The only way to "vanquish" the Nexus is to destroy one of those elements.

I was so hoping you'd fix that mistake, but I guess not.

I'll admit that's a fault. It's difficult to keep continuity with the show when the show itself has so many continuity issues, so I had to try and work around it.

Although I guess the best way around it is: As you may have noticed at the end of chapter one, Paige found out that they had not succeeded in destroying the Nexus at the end of season seven. Therefore the fact that the original spell to rid of the Nexus only worked to vanquish Zankou, this could suggest that the spell does not destroy the Nexus, because as you said, the Nexus cannot be destroyed unless you destroy one of the elements that Prue and Piper worked out on that map. I hadn't actually thought that through while writing the chapters, so although the sisters never mention a reason why the original Nexus spell didn't work the first time, it's perfectly reasonable to assume it's due to what you said about the Nexus.

As far as taking control of the Nexus goes, I think that part still works in that the demons can use the basement to take in the power, as it's the central point of the Nexus...

*nods* Yes, that helps make it sense.

[Esmeralda]

Sept 1, 2013 11:18:39 GMT -5 Astral Vision said:

-_- And I have also just remembered Zankou's first attempt on gaining control of the entity in the basement that I am not even sure what to name now, in Scry Hard, where Leo ends up taking it in. I am suddenly getting sick of the Nexus and/or Woogyman. Fortunately, I won't be writing about that particular basement dwelling source of power in any future fan fics.

Hehehehe, very good idea!