Eight

[Esmeralda]

I'm not going to battle whether Wyatt and Chris have any whitelighter blood in them or just have whitelighter powers = that was more just me giving you a bad time. I've accepted the fact that in yours if someone has a whitelighter for a father, they're part-whitelighter and being part whitelighter is more important than being part Charmed. It's probably what I hated most about Charmed once Paige was introduced, but since it's your fic, your rules reign.

Jan 9, 2014 7:39:05 GMT -5 Astral Vision said:

*sigh* First, please don't keep using the sisters' last name or which witch they are during each episode - we already know, and it makes it feel like this is a whole new story, not part of this series. Thanks.

The "which witch" thing is only because I need other ways to describe them other than by their names.

Why do fans think that using their names is boring? The professional novels never call them the premonition witch or the molecular witch or the whatever. They just use the names. So why don't fans? That's why I stopped using the terms. It's particularly irritating when what's going on has absolutely nothing to do with what's going on. It's just like fans using 230 words to say what could be said in 20. Nothing interesting in that.

YAY!!! Leo gets to be a whitelighter again, just like should've always been his true destiny, so that just like last time, he can save one of Piper's sisters!! YIPPEE!! The question is - what will Piper's reaction be to that?

Okay, now I'm confused. Why did Wyatt have to orb his dad and why did Wyatt heal Paige rather than Leo? Isn't this what the Elders wanted - Leo back to being a whitelighter? So why isn't he?

*sigh* Okay, I'm totally confused now. Is Leo permanently mortal or not? Or, no, wait a minute...in order to become a whitelighter again, does he have to die?

I did not want a scene that ended up too similar to that scene in Murphy's Luck, so that's one of the lesser reasons why Leo did not get his powers back just yet. The main reason why he hasn't gotten them back yet? You'll have to wait on that one. xD

Well, personally I love scenes that are reminiscent of earlier scenes, especially from the earlier seasons - they're great nods to earlier seasons. *sigh* I suppose if I have to wait, I have to wait... But with you starting your next term soon, I wonder how long that will be....

Ah, now that's a great reason for why Paige has stayed away from her real family, I must admit - to keep them and magic safe. But I'm glad Piper sees the necessity for getting to know them anyway so they'll know them at the wedding. But, wedding??? Aren't you rushing them as badly as the real Charmed did? Can't you wait and have them get engaged during the last episode? And please tell me that you're not planning a rushed wedding for Phoebe, too...

Wedding? You think I meant Paige and Henry's wedding? Gosh, no! Those two aren't even dating yet. It's the wedding that Piper and Phoebe found Paige had been invited to in the last memory. It just so happens that that wedding invite was a very early one (because I have no idea when people usually send 'Save the Date' type invites). So it's a random family member's wedding.

Ah! Thanks for pointing that out - I must've skimmed right past it, but now that makes a lot more sense. Thanks!

Glad you're enjoying it so far.

That I am. I'm waiting with bated breath for more...

[Astral Vision]

A/N: I'm not too sure how clear this will be to read for someone that has no idea what's going on (as I knew what was happening all through this chapter, I wasn't able to have the perspective of a reader). Just to let you know, it may be unclear why certain characters are acting in such a manner after the initial scene. There is a reason for that which will be explained within the chapter, but later on. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

There are five posts for this one, rather than four. It just fitted better that way.

---

Pieces of Mind

September 19th 2005

It was late afternoon. Piper Halliwell, Phoebe Halliwell, and Paige Matthews were in the attic.

Phoebe was dangling a scrying crystal over a map of San Francisco. Piper paced the attic while Paige stood by the Book of Shadows, flipping through the pages.

'Found her yet, Pheebs?' Piper said, impatiently.

Phoebe shook her head. 'Not yet. It would have been a lot easier if we hadn't lost Andrea in the first place.'

'Well, at least we lost her via her walking out annoyed at us, rather than the warlock kidnapping her,' Paige reasoned as she came to a stop in her search through the Book.

Piper nodded. 'Have you found a vanquishing spell for the warlock yet, Paige?'

Paige smiled as she pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen, and began to jot something down from the Book. 'Yes, and we don't even need to make a potion.'

'Good. So if we can't track down our innocent, we'll just track down the warlock and vanquish her. Then our innocent should be safe anyway,' Piper decided.

'Good thing we managed to come up with a spell that would cloak our innocent from the warlock,' Phoebe said as she continued to scry.

Paige closed the Book of Shadows and held up the scrap of paper containing the spell. 'I think we're ready to summon and vanquish the warlock.'

Phoebe put the scrying crystal down on the map and turned to face her sisters. 'Aren't we at least going to try and find the girl? She was quite mad at us when she stormed out of here.'

Paige nodded. 'I think we should. I mean, I still think that we were right. She can't face the warlock without us, but… I feel like we should make amends with her.'

Piper let out a sigh. 'Fine, but let's vanquish the warlock first.'

The sound of the doorbell echoed throughout the house, reverberating into the attic. The sisters exchanged glances.

'Warlocks don't usually ring doorbells, right?' Paige asked rhetorically.

'No, but innocents do,' Phoebe said. 'Maybe Andrea's decided to come back.'

'Cops ring doorbells too,' said Piper, who was already looking out of the attic window. She turned from the window to face her two sisters. 'Inspector Sanders is standing on the front porch.'

The three sisters made their way out of the attic. While Piper and Paige continued to go down the stairs, Phoebe stopped.

Noticing this, Piper asked, 'Pheebs, are you coming?'

Phoebe nodded. 'In a second,' she said, turning to the attic door and locking it.

Paige raised an eyebrow. 'You're locking the attic?'

Phoebe nodded. 'Yeah. Sanders had a file on us. What he's figured out so far might be wrong, but we don't want to give him the chance to find out anything that's right.'

Piper and Paige nodded in agreement. They continued down the stairs towards the front door while Phoebe went to hide the key elsewhere.

Once in the foyer, Piper opened the front door.

'Hi,' said Sanders. 'Do you mind if I come in?'

'Yes, we do mind,' said Paige sternly. 'Is there a reason you're here?'

'Yes. I'm here about the file,' said Sanders.

'What file?' Piper asked.

'My file. The one that you stole,' Sanders clarified.

'Doesn't ring a bell,' Paige said, smirking.

Phoebe had now joined the sisters and the Inspector by the front door.

'The file with your names on,' Sanders explained, finding no amusement in the sisters' constant denials.

'If it had our names on it, doesn't that make it ours?' Phoebe asked, gaining an amused laugh from Paige.

Sanders frowned. 'I know you have it.'

By now, Sanders had managed to step off of the front porch into the foyer, but the sisters would not allow him in any further. Therefore, he was inside the house, but blocking the door from being closed.

'Give me my file back,' Sanders said.

'Do you have a warrant, Inspector?' Piper asked.

Sanders shook his head, knowing what the next response would be.

'Then we definitely don't have your file,' Piper concluded. 'Now please let me leave so I may close the door –'

Piper was interrupted by a small bird flying in through the front door and into the foyer. Instinctively, she threw up her hands to freeze the room.

'We've got to get rid of that damn bird's nest on the porch! They fly in whenever the front door's open!' Piper complained.

'Is that why you wanted the door shut or was it just because you wanted to get rid of me?' asked Sanders.

The three sisters turned to stare at Sanders in shock.

'Why isn't he frozen?' Paige whispered to Piper.

Sanders smirked at the three sisters. 'I guess the secret's out. I know the three of you are the Charmed Ones. And I know that because… I'm a witch.'

...

September 20th 2005

It was the early hours of the following morning and Phoebe lay sound asleep in bed. She turned onto her side, her arm unintentionally hitting her bedside table. Her hand brushed aside a key that lay on top of the table. This contact caused her tranquil expression to change into one of confusion, then fear.

This woke her. Phoebe's arm swept off the bedside table – knocking the key down to the floor between the bed and table – as she sat bolt upright in bed, not without letting out an unavoidable squeal of terror. Phoebe took a few deep breaths, trying to regain her composure.

Her bedroom door opened and Piper peered in. 'Pheebs, is everything okay? I heard you scream.'

'I… I don't know,' Phoebe said, shaking a little now that she was beginning to process what she had just seen.

Piper opened the door further and entered her sister's room. Closing the door behind her, Piper went and sat on the edge of Phoebe's bed.

'Bad dream?' Piper asked.

Phoebe nodded. 'I don't even know where it came from…'

'It was just a dream, Phoebe,' Piper consoled her.

Phoebe shook her head. 'It felt so real… You, me, and Paige in a park. We weren't alone though. We were trying to protect some girl from some woman. There was fire… lots of it…'

Piper frowned. 'It was just a dream, Phoebe. You really don't have to worry.'

Phoebe ignored Piper, continuing her description of the dream. 'Then things went all hazy and we were suddenly all in the attic and –'

Piper stopped Phoebe there. 'Well, doesn't that already prove to you that this was all just a dream?' Piper asked. 'We've never been able to access that attic. It's always been locked. Even before Grams passed away.'

Phoebe nodded, letting out a sigh. 'I guess you're right. I just… I can't believe how real it all felt.' Phoebe took one last deep breath and then looked up at Piper. 'Did I wake you?'

Piper shook her head solemnly. 'I was already awake. I've been lying awake for hours waiting for Leo to get home.'

Phoebe looked surprised. 'He stayed out late again?'

Piper nodded. 'Every night for the past week. Ever since he found out that he could go back to doing what he used to do.'

'Do you know what he's been spending the days doing?' Phoebe asked.

Piper shook her head. 'We haven't really discussed it. I've been trying to give him space, because I feel like if I give him my opinion on the matter… Well, I'm sure my opinion will cause an argument.'

'You don't want him to go back to that job,' Phoebe voiced.

Piper closed her eyes in regret. 'Doesn't that sound just so selfish?'

Phoebe shook her head. 'No. It's because you're worried that his job could split your family up again. That's a perfectly good reason. You should really talk to Leo though. If you don't get this fear out in the open, Leo will never know.'

Piper sighed. 'I know.'

'Tell him first thing in the mor –' Phoebe stopped mid-word when she heard the front door open and shut. This sound was followed quickly by footsteps making their way up the stairs. Soon a door down the corridor was heard opening and shutting. 'Tell him now.'

Piper stood up and made her way over to Phoebe's bedroom door. She was reaching for the door handle when she hesitated and turned back to Phoebe.

'Do you think you'll be okay sleeping now? That bad dream's not going to keep you up?' Piper enquired.

Phoebe frowned. 'What if it was trying to tell me something?'

'It was probably just your imagination running wild about the contents of that attic,' Piper replied. 'Now go to sleep – it's all you're going to get if mine and Leo's discussion happens to develop into a full blown argument that wakes the whole house up.'

Phoebe smirked. 'You'll be fine.'

Piper opened the door and left the bedroom. She made her way straight down the corridor to her own room. On entering her room, Piper found that Leo Wyatt was already fast asleep.

...

Later that morning – after the sun had risen and the day had officially begun – Halliwell manor was alive with sound and activity.

Paige entered the kitchen to find Piper pouring out a mug of coffee. Piper immediately handed a freshly filled mug to Paige.

'Thanks,' said Paige. She smiled as she looked at her watch. 'Eight o'clock. An hour before I need to be at the station. You know, I've missed this nine to five routine over the last few years. I don't know why I ever hated it back in my social service days.'

Piper shook her head. 'You're just feeling nostalgic, that's all. Give it another week and then you'll be moaning about it again. Especially considering you don't get a pay check for all of this voluntary work.'

Paige smirked. 'Nah, I don't think so. I like the work I've been doing with Henry. Although, if I don't start getting interviews soon for social work firms, I think I will definitely have something to complain about.'

'I can't even remember why you quit your last social work job in the first place,' Piper pointed out.

'It was because…' Paige narrowed her eyes in confusion. 'The reason's all a bit hazy. I can't quite remember what the reason was.'

The conversation was put on hold as Phoebe made her way into the kitchen.

'Morning,' the middle sister said, all too brightly as she took a seat at the counter.

'Morning, Pheebs. Did you have any more bad dreams last night?' Piper asked.

Phoebe shook her head, her smile only faltering during the brief moment of thinking back to that dream. 'Nope. Just the one.'

Paige looked between her two sisters. 'You had a nightmare?'

'Yeah… Something about us and an innocent girl and someone or something else…' Phoebe muttered.

Before Paige had a chance to respond, Leo entered the kitchen. The ex-whitelighter's hair was unkempt, his face unshaven, and there were bags beneath his eyes.

Leo declined the offer of coffee that Piper had given him and turned his back on the family as he opened the fridge to search for something to eat. While his back was turned, Phoebe mouthed to Piper:

'Did you speak to him last night?'

Piper shook her head. Pointing at Leo, Piper made a sleeping motion to imply that he had been asleep. Phoebe understood this and Paige was partially able to catch up and follow the discussion she had not been privy to in the early hours.

'Speak to him now,' Phoebe hissed, but immediately shut up as Leo closed the fridge door, turning back around to face the others with an apple in his hand.

Leo turned straight to Piper and said: 'Piper, do you want me to take the boys to preschool and day care? That way you have more time to prepare for P3.'

'The prospective buyers aren't showing up at P3 until half ten,' Piper replied. 'Wyatt needs to be at preschool by quarter to nine and Chris' day care centre doesn't open until nine. I have plenty of time between to take them before I go to P3.'

Leo nodded. 'I just thought I'd offer to take them instead…'

Phoebe decided to intervene. 'I don't need to be at the Bay Mirror until half nine, so I'll take the boys. You two can stay here and discuss certain things.'

Leo frowned. 'Certain things? What certain things?'

'Oh, Piper can tell you that,' Phoebe said, quickly heading towards the kitchen door.

'I should be going,' said Paige, briskly following Phoebe to leave the couple alone.

'It's only just gone eight, Paige. You said you were not in a rush to get to the station,' Piper said, not wanting to have to face the daunting conversation just yet.

Paige had already left the kitchen by this point, but her voice trailed back into the kitchen as she called: 'Yeah, but you never know what traffic's going to be like!'

Moments later, the front door was heard shutting. So Paige had left the manor. Piper could only assume that Phoebe had gone upstairs to get the boys ready.

'What certain things?' Leo repeated, sitting down at the counter next to Piper. His expression was one of worry.

Piper sighed, giving herself a little more time to think over how she was going to word it. However, at the very last second, she chickened out of revealing her fears, and instead resorted to hiding her weakness – and protecting her pride – with anger: 'What have you been doing with your days recently? You wander off early in the morning with little to no word and then don't come back until the early hours of the morning! Do you know how worried I've been every night? Do you realise that I've spent every night waiting up for you, worried about where you've been?'

Leo frowned. 'I just don't know what I'm doing with my life, Piper. I have no identity and I have no purpose.'

Piper shook her head in outrage. 'Leo! You're a husband and a father! That's an identity and a purpose all in one!'

Leo scowled. 'Is that all I am to you, Piper? Am I not allowed some other purpose in my life other than that of being around the house?'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'Of course that's not all that you are to me. I just thought you appreciated those parts of your life.'

'I do,' Leo said. 'I just… I want something outside of that. I can't even blend into society, because I don't legally have an identity.'

Piper sighed, calming down a little. 'You have a passport.'

Leo let out a small laugh. 'My passport isn't technically legal, remember?'

Piper frowned. 'I remember seeing your birth certificate and I remember the birthdate being 1974. The rest is a little hazy.'

Leo just shook his head, passing Piper's reply off as an excuse. 'Saying it's all 'a little hazy' wouldn't exactly hold up in court.'

'So… What have you been spending your days doing then if you don't have an identity? Moping around? Wandering the streets wishing you could get a job?' Piper asked huffily.

'I don't know why you can't be understanding, Piper,' Leo mumbled, standing up and making his way over to the kitchen door.

Piper stood up from her seat and glared at him. 'How was I not being understanding? I'm just worried about you.'

Leo began to walk out of the kitchen. Piper followed him, continuing her rant.

'Leo, I just want you to talk to me!' Piper continued.

Leo stopped and turned back to Piper. He sighed. 'All I needed was some support.'

Her husband's grave words left Piper speechless. She watched as Leo made his way back into the kitchen and left via the back door.

Hearing noise in the foyer, Piper headed in that direction. Phoebe was opening the door to leave with Wyatt and Chris. On opening the front door, a baby bird flew in. The two boys looked fascinated as the bird flew around above them. Piper, however, looked annoyed.

'We've really got to do something about that bird's nest on the porch!' Piper moaned as the bird landed on the entrance table. 'Every time that door is opened, a bird flies in!'

'You've been saying that all week, Piper, but there's nothing we can do about it right now,' Phoebe said, holding the boys back from the bird.

Both Wyatt and Chris wanted to wander over to it and pet it, but their mother and overprotective auntie would not allow that.

Piper sighed. 'Take the boys and get to work. I'll deal with our unwanted visitor.'

Phoebe nodded and left the manor with Wyatt and Chris, making sure to shut the door behind them before anymore birds could fly in.

...

With his hands buried in his pockets and his shoulders slumped forward, Leo was wandering the streets of San Francisco.

He looked up as he passed an accident scene where bystanders were being asked by police officers to stand back. A motorcycle lay in pieces, blocking part of the road. Paramedics were seeing to the rider who lay on the floor, his head still obscured by his helmet.

Leo continued past this scene, wondering how, going from a whitelighter to a mortal, he could only ever be a bystander to what went on in the magical world from now on. How could he help people when he was continually shunted to the side as a bystander?

...

At the police station, Paige sat in her chair at the desk that she now shared with Henry. Paige was sorting through some documents, while Henry was on the phone.

'Are you sure about that? He was spotted where? Okay. Who identified him? Uh okay. I trust his word. I'm on my way,' Henry said. He put his phone back in his pocket and stood up.

'A run away parolee's been spotted?' Paige guessed.

'Yep,' Henry said, speedily putting his jacket on. He smiled, raising an eyebrow. 'Want to join me on the chase?'

Paige smirked. 'I thought your bosses said that I wasn't allowed to accompany you on trips out of the office,' she said.

'I thought you were mad when I told you that, because you felt that it sounded like all they thought you were was some sort of secretary?' Henry asked, a smile appearing on his face.

'I still am mad about that, but I'm not trying to turn down the offer to go after this parolee with you. I just don't want you getting in trouble,' Paige justified.

'As long as I still find my parolee, they won't fire me,' Henry said, waving the concerns away. 'Now, are you coming with or not?'

Paige stood up from her seat. 'Sure.'

Paige put her coat on and picked up her purse. She and Henry approached the door of his office. Someone from the outside opened the door, entering the room before the two could leave. The girl, who entered, looked from Henry to Paige.

'Paige!' the girl exclaimed.

'Er… Do I know you?' asked Paige, confused.

The girl looked to be in her early twenties. The girl looked sheepish, casting her eyes down at the floor.

'Okay. I guess I deserve that after refusing to let you and your sisters help me and then running off, but…' said the girl before looking back up at Paige. 'I realised I was wrong and I do need your help.'

Paige frowned, still extremely confused. 'I don't know what you're talking about…' Paige said.

Henry glanced at his watch. 'Paige, we really need to go. My parolee might not be anywhere near where he was last spotted if I take much longer to get going.'

Paige bit her lip, looking from Henry to the strange girl. Eventually, Paige made up her mind. 'This girl, whoever she is, needs my help, Henry. You go ahead without me.'

Henry nodded and sped off out of his office. Paige shut the door behind him and then directed the girl towards a seat by the desk. Paige sat down opposite her.

'Start from the beginning,' Paige said. 'Why do you think you've met me before?'

...

[Astral Vision]

At P3, Piper was polishing the bar surface with a rag. She wanted the place to look absolutely perfect by the time the prospective buyers got there. Piper dropped the rag, so ducked behind the bar to pick it up.

For this reason, Piper did not see a female warlock blink in.

The warlock looked like she was in her mid-thirties, though how long she had looked that age could not be assessed from her appearance. She wore her long, curly hair up in a ponytail. She wore a respectably covered long emerald dress.

As the warlock approached the bar, Piper stood back up with the rag in her hand. At first, Piper let out a gasp of fright, but that was immediately followed by: 'You scared me. I didn't hear anyone come in. You're a bit earlier than I expected if you're one of the potential buyers.'

The blonde warlock smiled. 'A buyer? You don't recognise me?' she asked, delight showing in her voice.

Piper frowned. 'You're not one of the buyers?'

'I'm afraid not,' said the warlock, conjuring an athame into her hand right in front of Piper.

Piper's eyes widened. She stumbled backwards in shock, accidentally backing into the bar shelves, causing glasses to fall and smash on the ground by her feet.

'How did you do that?' Piper asked, fear escalating inside her.

The warlock's smile widened as she played with the point of the athame in her hands. 'You don't seem to remember magic either? This is intriguing.' However, her smile quickly melted away. 'So I guess you wouldn't happen to remember where you're hiding your innocent either? Pity. I was so looking forward to getting the answer out of you.'

Piper's eyes were firmly on the athame. 'I don't know what you're talking about.'

The warlock's smile returned maliciously. 'Maybe I won't get what I came here for, but the chance to kill a Charmed One is always a good alternative.'

Leaving hardly any pause between her last word and her next action, the warlock lunged towards Piper with the athame.

Piper quickly ducked behind the bar to avoid contact with the athame. She continued to crawl along the floor between the bar and the wall, hoping that the warlock would not hear which way she was going.

From her place on the main club floor, the warlock continued to smile. 'You have nowhere to run and I can be very patient,' she taunted.

Piper took a few deep breaths and allowed anger to overtake her fear. Standing up, Piper faced the warlock.

'How dare you come into my club and threaten me?' Piper asked, unsure how she could feel so self-assured as to yell at this strange and powerful being.

The warlock's smile wavered a little, but her stance did not change. 'Ah, that's more like what I expected from the eldest Charmed One.'

'Stop calling me that,' Piper said, walking along her side of the bar, keeping an eye on the warlock who still remained on the other side.

The warlock smirked, following Piper from her own side of the bar. The athame still moved playfully between the warlock's hands.

Piper lunged for the landline phone that sat at the back of the bar. The warlock reacted quickly, flinging her hand out to telekinetically pull the phone out of Piper's reach. The phone was disconnected from the wall as it went flying into a wall across the club.

'No calling for back up,' the warlock said wickedly. 'I'd be an idiot to let you get your sisters involved.'

'My sisters? I would have called the cops. Why do you think I would have called my sisters?' Piper asked.

Though she wanted to know the answer – to her, it seemed insane to get her sisters involved in a dangerous mugging situation (or whatever this could be described as) – Piper wanted to slow the warlock down, while she looked for something to arm herself with.

First of all, Piper's eyes scanned over to her own two hands. She had them by her sides, but her instincts seemed to be telling her to hold them up in defence. However, something else inside her quelled that instinct and Piper's eyes continued to look around the bar for a possible weapon.

'Of course. If you don't remember who I am, what magic is, or why I called you a Charmed One, then why would you know anything else?' the warlock asked joyously. 'I wonder if this fate has also occurred to your sisters… I could pick you off one by one.'

This last statement alone brought Piper's full attention away from the weapon hunt and back to the warlock.

'Leave my sisters out of this,' Piper hissed.

The warlock only laughed at this reaction. 'I guess whether you remember about magic or not, you'll always care for your sisters. Such a pitiful human characteristic.'

The warlock finally decided to take the opportunity to dive over the bar with her athame pointed Piper-ward. Rather than ducking, Piper picked up a metal tray and thrust it out in front of her.

The athame made contact with the tray, metal on metal. The impact caused the warlock to lose her grip on the athame, allowing it to go up in the air and land on the floor to Piper's side of the bar.

In the blink of an eye, the warlock disappeared. Concerned, Piper turned around to where the athame lay on the floor. In another blink of an eye, the warlock had reappeared kneeling beside the athame.

The warlock took hold of it and stood up. There was no bar creating a barrier between the two women now. Just the now-dented metal tray in Piper's hands separated her from the athame poised in the warlock's hand.

Both women's attentions were drawn to the club's staircase when footsteps and voices became audible.

Rolling her eyes, the warlock said, 'Mortals. They always ruin the fun.' The warlock blinked out.

Two people reached the bottom of the staircase just in time to miss seeing anything supernatural. They were a man and a woman. The woman was Lisa, the SWA Properties employee that Piper had hired to help sell the club.

'This is a marvellous club. The area surrounding the club is much safer than it used to be when this club first opened – almost seven years ago,' Lisa was saying to the man. 'As you can see, it is underground, giving you that much more floor space.'

'I noticed the stairs, but how about disabled access?' the man asked.

Lisa smiled approvingly. 'Don't worry, Mr. Stevens. There is an elevator just around the corner, behind that door,' she said, pointing in a direction past the bar.

Lisa grew an expression of worry as she noticed Piper. The club owner stood behind the bar with a damaged tray in her hands. Her face was pale and her eyes wide. The bar and the shelves behind were littered with smashed glasses.

'Piper?' Lisa questioned. 'Piper, are you okay?'

Mr. Stevens furrowed his brow. 'What's going on?' he asked.

'I'm not too sure,' said Lisa, walking towards Piper. Mr. Stevens followed her.

Shaking herself out of the shock of what had just happened, Piper put the tray down on the bar. 'Hi,' Piper said nonchalantly as if she and the club's state had nothing to do with her current conduct. 'Don't worry about the mess. It's very rare for this type of thing to happen here these days.'

'For what to happen?' asked Mr. Stevens haphazardly.

'That's a very good question,' Piper replied. 'I'm not even sure myself…'

...

At the Bay Mirror, Phoebe was on her phone. Her expression was one of worry.

'I'll be right there,' Phoebe said.

Phoebe hung up the phone and then speed-dialled an internal number. 'Hi,' she said as soon as her assistant had picked up the other end of the line. 'I have to go out for the rest of the day. A family emergency. Can you let Elise know?'

'Sure thing, but you know that Elise is getting more and more annoyed with these constant 'family emergencies' of yours,' Phoebe's assistant replied.

Phoebe frowned. 'I do get a lot of them, don't I? Strange, I can't quite remember what they were about. It's a bit hazy. This one, however, is definitely an emergency. Tell Elise I'll have my column done by tonight's deadline.'

Phoebe put the phone down, gathered her coat and her purse, and left her office. Phoebe stopped at the elevator, waiting for it to arrive on the right floor.

The elevator doors slid open, revealing Sanders standing inside.

'Are you going up or down?' Phoebe asked, annoyed at seeing Sanders there.

'Actually, I was looking for you, so we're heading back to your office,' Sanders said.

'Too bad, because I'm on my way out,' said Phoebe, walking into the elevator.

'I've got time. We can walk and talk,' he said, unfazed, pressing the button that would take them down to the car park level.

The elevator doors slid shut, leaving Phoebe alone in the confined space with Sanders.

Phoebe frowned. 'Look, my sister's just been attacked at her club. I don't really feel like talking to a cop right now.'

Sanders looked concerned for a moment. 'She was attacked? By what?'

'I don't know… It may have been a burglary or just some crazed loon… Piper kept the story short and vague,' Phoebe explained.

'Well, I may as well come with so as there can be a cop on scene. We can take my car and I can talk to you on the way,' Sanders persisted.

'I'd rather take my own car, thanks,' said Phoebe. 'As I said, I don't want to talk to you.'

'If you come with me in my car, I can turn on the sirens and we'll get to your sister a lot faster,' Sanders suggested.

Phoebe sighed. 'Fine, I give in, but only because I want to get to Piper as quickly as possible.'

The elevator doors opened and the two of them exited, making their way towards Sanders' car.

...

The sulking ex-whitelighter continued his purposeless walk through San Francisco. Leo had no direction in his life at the moment. The street Leo found himself on was relatively empty and therefore quiet.

Suddenly, a man came running around the corner onto the street. He rushed past Leo and leapt into the closest alleyway. Leo heard the clatter of metal and then an anguished howl of pain.

Worried, Leo walked into the alleyway to find that, in his hastiness, the man had tripped over some rubbish and scratched his leg on a discarded piece of rusty metal.

The man was sitting on the ground, his hand clamped around the wound on his leg. His face showed that he was in a lot of pain.

The man's eyes widened when he saw Leo. The man tried to get up to run away, but the pain was too much.

'You shouldn't move,' Leo said cautiously. 'The wound looks pretty deep.'

The man said nothing. He was shaking a little from the pain. He did not flinch as Leo knelt down to take a closer look at the wound.

'Okay, the wound could easily be infected,' Leo said. 'I used to be a medic, so I can help with the basic first aid, but after that, you're going to need to get to a hospital. You might need some jabs.'

The man shook his head. 'I can't go there. They'll find me.'

'Who will?' Leo asked, ripping a piece of cloth from his shirt. He pressed the cloth against the man's wound. 'This is going to hurt, but you need to keep pressure on it. Now tell me, who's after you?'

'Found you,' said a voice from the alleyway entrance. 'You may be able to outrun me, but don't think you can beat me at hide-and-go-seek.'

As Leo turned around to see who the voice belonged to, he heard the injured man say, 'The cops, that's who.'

Leo recognised the man at the alleyway entrance immediately, having seen him meet up with Paige at P3 once or twice for work-related business.

'Henry,' said Leo, standing up.

'I see my parolee's mentioned me then,' Henry said, walking over to the injured man and handcuffing him. 'Felix, I thought you knew better than to break parole.'

'No. I've seen you at P3. I'm Paige's brother-in-law,' Leo said.

'Oh, er, nice to meet you and all, but I'm a little busy right now,' Henry said, forcing his handcuffed parolee to stand up.

The parolee winced in pain, staggering a little.

'Be careful,' Leo cautioned. 'He's hurt his leg pretty badly. He's probably best off going to hospital.'

Henry glanced down at his parolee's wounded leg and sighed. 'Looks like you're getting a detour on your way to the station, Felix.'

Henry began to walk out of the alleyway, Felix limping beside him. At the end of the alley, Henry stopped and turned around to face Leo, who had not moved.

'Hey, Paige's brother-in-law. You obviously know some first aid considering Felix is holding part of your shirt against his leg. It might be an idea for you to tag along to the hospital.'

Leo smiled and nodded. 'It's Leo, by the way,' said the ex-whitelighter.

...

Blazing through traffic on account of the sirens, Phoebe sat in the front passenger's seat of Sanders' police car.

'You're still not letting me talk,' Sanders said.

'That's because there is nothing to talk about,' Phoebe said, annoyed. 'You turned up at the manor yesterday with the utter disrespect to accuse us of taking a file that we don't have and –'

'No. You do have the file. You're just not willing to give it up so are lying through your teeth,' Sanders countered.

Phoebe looked outraged at the accusation. 'Every time you see my family, you seem to want to insult us! Every corner me or one of my sisters turns, you're there. I mean, why can't you just leave my family alone?'

'I don't mean to insult your family. It's not my fault that you and your sisters have been involved in so many crime scenes over the past seven years,' Sanders said. 'People are always going to want answers and it is best that people think I'm the one asking them…'

Sanders trailed off when he saw Phoebe's confused face.

'Crime scenes?' Phoebe questioned. 'I would continue to argue that I don't know what you're on about, but… although I can't quite remember, it seems a little hazy.'

Sanders frowned, echoing her last three words as if they were familiar to him: 'A little hazy?'

Phoebe narrowed her eyes. 'What now? Is there something wrong with my pronunciation? What are you trying to accuse me of now?'

Sanders did not make an immediate reply. All he did was mutter to himself, 'Damn personal gain.'

They had pulled up outside P3. As the two of them got out of the car, Phoebe began to walk off, ahead of Sanders towards the club's entrance.

'Phoebe, wait!' Sanders called after her. 'I need to speak to you!'

...

Back at the police station, in Henry's office, the girl was explaining her story to Paige.

'My name is Andrea. I'm a witch,' the girl said. 'The wa –'

'Wait, wait, wait,' Paige said, interrupting Andrea. 'You lost me at 'witch'.'

At hearing these words, Andrea looked irritated. 'Yesterday, you and your sisters wouldn't listen to me, because you thought I was an unexperienced witch. Now that I come back and admit I was wrong, you choose to mock me instead?'

Andrea stood up and stormed towards the office door. Paige stood up and followed.

'Wait, don't go. You obviously need my help, whatever this is,' Paige said, but Andrea did not listen. She shut the door as she left the office.

Paige reopened the door only to find that Andrea was nowhere in sight. Either she was a really fast runner or she had vanished into thin air.

Paige closed the office door and returned to Henry's desk. She could no longer focus on work now that the strange girl's words were replaying in her head. However, there was nothing that Paige could do unless the strange girl came back.

...

Piper was preoccupied with sweeping broken glass off the bar into a dustpan as Phoebe came down the stairs into the club.

'Piper! Are you okay?' Phoebe asked, running over to her sister.

Piper put the dustpan and brush down. 'It depends. I may have just lost a potential buyer for this club. He was a little frazzled by the glass and the possible danger of the local area.'

'I don't care about the buyer! What about you? Are you hurt? What happened?' Phoebe asked, glancing over her sister for any signs of injuries. There were none.

'Some woman came in and threatened me with a weird looking knife. A couple of other difficult-to-explain things happened too,' Piper said, frowning as she recalled the event.

'She threatened you? Piper! You should have just given her the cash from the till and then called the cops afterwards!' Phoebe said.

'She wasn't after money, Pheebs. She was after someone I apparently know and apparently since I had forgotten about this person, the woman decided she would kill me instead,' Piper said, shrugging. 'Besides, I couldn't phone the cops since she ripped the phone out of the wall.'

Phoebe turned around to notice the phone lying on the other side of P3.

Turning back to Piper, Phoebe said, 'Then how did you phone me?'

Piper rolled her eyes and smiled. 'I have my own phone too, remember?'

Phoebe leant over the bar – avoiding any scattered pieces of broken glass – to give Piper a hug.

'I'm just glad you're okay,' Phoebe said mid-hug.

'I'm okay,' Piper said, releasing herself from Phoebe's grip. 'I'm just peeved that the woman threatened you and Paige, as well as me. I'm even more peeved off at her timing! If she'd have at least waited until after the buyer had come to look around P3 –'

'She threatened me and Paige too?' Phoebe asked.

'Yeah. Like I said, she seemed to think we met her yesterday,' Piper said, shrugging.

Sanders had made his way into the club by this point in the conversation. 'Who did you meet yesterday?' he asked curiously.

Piper scowled. 'Inspector, leave. You weren't welcome at our home yesterday and you're not welcome at my club today.'

Sanders frowned, but stood his ground. 'I'm not leaving until I know more about this attack.'

'How do you know about the attack? Why are you even here?' Piper asked, confused.

Phoebe sighed guiltily. 'It's my fault. He burst into my work wanting to talk about that file that we don't have –'

'That you do have,' Sanders interjected.

Ignoring the interruption, Phoebe continued: 'I was on my way out to see if you were okay. He wouldn't leave me alone and then offered his car to get here faster.'

'Can we get back on point here?' asked Sanders. 'I want to know the details on this attack.'

'You don't need to know them,' Piper said touchily.

'I do,' said Sanders.

'Why?' asked Piper, her arms crossed and her mode set to stubborn.

Sanders sighed, giving in. 'Look, a spell of mine seems to have backfired and if this attack was to do with the warlock that you were trying to save your innocent from yesterday, then you probably have no idea what is going on right now.'

Piper and Phoebe exchanged incredulous glances.

'Uh, Inspector, did I mishear you? Or did you just say 'spell'?' Phoebe asked.

Sanders took a deep breath. 'You didn't mishear me.'

Piper let out a disbelieving laugh. 'This is ridiculous.'

'A spell?' Phoebe repeated questionably. 'What are you trying to imply?'

Sanders hesitated for a few seconds before saying: 'I'm a witch. Except you found this out yesterday when I came around to try to get the file back.'

'I think we'd remember something like that, Inspector. Now if you're going to waste our time, please just leave,' Piper said.

'The two of you are also witches,' Sanders continued.

Piper shook her head in response. 'Please,' she said, unconvinced. 'For one thing, magic does not exist. For another: I think we'd remember something like that too.'

'Unless, of course, I decided that I didn't want you to remember that I was a witch and cast a spell to do just that,' Sanders admitted. 'And to top it all off, personal gain decided to intervene and apparently make you forget everything else about magic too.'

...

[Astral Vision]

Paige sat in Henry's office, trying to recall the events of the previous day. However, as hard as she tried, she could not remember having met that girl before. Paige had attempted to go through the events of the prior day in chronological order over and over again, but however often she tried, she could not do it. Her memories of the previous day seemed...

'… so hazy,' Paige muttered to herself.

She had not realised how much time had passed until the office door opened and Henry walked in.

'Hey,' Paige said a little idly. 'Where's the parolee?'

Henry sighed. 'He injured himself while trying to get away from me and now the hospital want to keep him under observation overnight.'

Paige nodded understandingly. 'Okay.'

Henry frowned, noticing Paige's unusually quiet and distant demeanour. 'Are you okay? What happened with that girl?'

Paige let out a sigh as she shrugged in response. 'To be honest, I have no idea… She needed my help, but… There's just something missing… something that I can't quite grasp…'

Henry put a supportive hand on Paige's shoulder. 'I'm sure the answer will come to you. You've never been the type of person to give up when there's something bothering you.'

This statement led to a small smile from Paige. 'You can't know that for sure since you've only known me for about a month.'

Henry shrugged, smirking. 'What can I say? Either I'm a good judge of character or you wear your heart on your sleeve.'

Paige was about to make a witty remark when she noticed someone standing just outside the open office door.

'Leo?' Paige said, for just outside the door was Leo. He had been glancing around the corridor outside until he heard his name and let his eyes make contact with Paige's.

Henry turned to face the door. 'Hey Leo. Did you give my colleague your statement?'

Leo nodded. 'Yeah I did. I was just hoping that I could have a quick word with Paige before I left.'

Paige had become puzzled by this entire exchange. 'Since when did you two know each other?'

'Since an hour ago when your brother-in-law decided to start giving my injured parolee some medical advice,' Henry said, good-humouredly.

Leo looked away from his sister-in-law and the parole officer, embarrassed by the story. 'So can I talk to you, Paige?' he asked.

Paige stood up from her seat at the desk. 'Okay,' she said.

...

Back at P3, Piper and Phoebe were staring at Sanders in absolute disbelief.

'You don't actually think we're going to believe this crap about us all being witches, do you?' Piper asked Sanders.

Sanders sighed. 'I need to find a way to convince you… but how?'

'I think proof is the only thing that's going to make me believe you, and since that's not possible –' Piper began, but was quickly interrupted.

'Did the attacker happen to do anything that you could not explain?' Sanders interjected.

Piper suddenly grimaced as she recalled the unexplainable things she had seen while defending herself against the strange woman.

Sanders nodded righteously at Piper's expression. 'I knew it,' he said. Then he grimaced. 'And it's my fault that you don't know what's going on. You could have been killed by the warlock.'

Phoebe shook her head. 'This joke isn't even funny and you're just wasting our time.'

Piper had regained her composure now and joined Phoebe by her side. 'I agree. We don't have your file, we don't have the time to sit here and kid around, and we don't want you here. So, for the last time, get out of my club, or I'll call the cops – and then you can have the fun of being escorted out of here by your colleagues.'

Sanders took a deep breath and nodded in defeat. 'Fine,' he said. 'I'll go, but only because I can't reverse the spell until you are both in the same room as Paige. I cast it on all three of you at once, so the three of you need to be present for me to reverse it.'

Piper and Phoebe made no reply, having had enough of the Inspector's story of magic and witches.

Sanders made his way towards the staircase. However, the female warlock blinked in directly in front of him, stopping Sanders in his tracks.

Sanders' eyes widened in surprise. 'Oh no.' He turned to Piper and Phoebe and yelled, 'Use your powers against her! Quick!'

'I've got an idea,' said the warlock in reply. 'Why don't I use my powers against you instead?'

With one sweep of her hand, the warlock had telekinetically thrown Sanders across the room. Crashing into a table and some chairs, Sanders fell unconscious.

Both Piper and Phoebe looked alarmed as, with a wicked sneer, the warlock set her sights on the two sisters.

...

Paige had followed Leo out of Henry's office and walked along the corridor until they found an empty office. They were now sat down in the empty office with the door shut.

'What's wrong, Leo?' Paige asked with some concern.

Leo took a deep breath before beginning to speak: 'I'm sure that you, Piper, and Phoebe have all noticed that I've been a little distant since I realised that –'

Paige stopped Leo there. 'Yeah, we've noticed. Piper's been worried, Leo.'

Leo swallowed guiltily. 'I know, but… I didn't come to speak to you about Piper.'

Paige furrowed her brow. 'What do you want, Leo?'

Leo sighed, looking almost reluctant to admit to his reasons. Eventually he found his courage. 'I seem to keep forgetting that recently you've been put into the same situation as I was.'

'Being unemployed?' Paige suggested.

Leo smiled. 'I guess you could put it like that.'

Leo paused, contemplating how he was going to phrase the next part. They were not exactly in a private building and a policeman – more specifically, a mortal – could walk into the office at any moment. They would have to keep the conversation to analogies and euphemisms.

'When I first lost my job, I was happy. Being free from my duties, free to be with my family – I had wanted that for so long. It was all I had hoped for,' Leo resumed.

Paige frowned. 'What's changed?'

Leo took his time to answer again. It seemed as if this was all very difficult for him to admit to himself more so than to Paige.

'I want to help people again. If Piper can juggle between a family, her club, and helping others, then why can't I?' Leo finally managed.

Paige nodded slowly, but understandingly. 'Then why are you coming to me about this and not Piper?'

'I told you. Despite your own 'unemployment', you've still managed to find a way to start helping people again,' Leo said, placing air quotes around 'unemployment' as he said it. 'Outside of your other destiny that is.'

'My other destiny?' Paige asked, an expression of confusion on her face. Leo dismissed this strange response as an attempt to remind him not to use any magical terms in public as he continued to get to his point.

'You still tried to keep helping the people that you were suddenly powerless to help,' said Leo. 'I want to do that… except I've wasted so much time and don't know how or where to start.' Leo paused before adding: 'Piper was right. All I've been doing is moping around, wandering the streets, wishing to help rather than actually doing anything.'

Paige shook her head. 'That's not all you've been doing though, is it, Leo? Henry said it himself a few minutes ago. You tried to help his parolee when you saw that he was hurt.'

Leo sighed. 'Yeah, but that only happened due to my aimless wandering…'

Paige nodded sympathetically. 'Yes, but your aimless wandering led you somewhere and it led you there for a reason.'

Leo shook his head hopelessly, looking down at his shoes. 'And where exactly would that be? If my bosses wanted me back, they would have done something by now.'

'Leo,' Paige said firmly, causing her brother-in-law to revert back to making eye contact with her. 'Everyone has a raison d'être. Including you.'

'Apparently not. Trying to help people hasn't led me anywhere, because there's nothing I can do! There are always other people around to intervene who can do a better job than me! Doctors and cops in the normal world! Then in the world I used to be a part of, there are you, Piper, and Phoebe! The three of you can do more in that world than I can! Even my sons can do more than I can!'

Paige furrowed her brow, assuming that Leo was using 'that world' as an analogy for his family. 'You're still part of that world too, Leo. You never left it.'

Leo sighed, clutching his hair in his hands. 'You know what I meant. I'm just not a part of it like I used to be. I'm useless. I'm a nobody.'

Paige stood up. 'No, Leo. You're not. You said you came to me because you needed to know where to start. Well, here's where to start: Stop doubting yourself! Stop whining about what you're missing out on and just figure out a way to make yourself feel a part of it again and then do that!' Paige specified bluntly.

Paige looked to her brother-in-law for some sort of response to her words. However, Leo's reaction was not one that she had been expecting.

Leo's eyes were wide and he was staring at Paige. From the moment her final speech had begun, a golden glow had started to engulf her. This glow had originated at heart level and spread all over her body. By the moment Paige's monologue had culminated, the glow had completely covered her and within a blink the golden glow disappeared.

'What?' asked Paige, completely unaware of it all.

'You glowed,' was all Leo could muster.

'I – what? I glowed?' Paige said, relatively lost in the conversation's tangent.

Leo nodded, his previous surprise now replaced with excitement. He got to his feet.

'Yes! Paige, that glow could have only meant one thing! You've got your powers back!' Leo's excitement vanished to be replaced with a serious look. 'I wonder why now? Why at this moment?'

'My powers?' Paige asked, perplexed. She took a hesitant step back from Leo. 'What are you talking about, Leo?'

Leo grimaced. He looked around to check the door was still tightly shut before saying quietly: 'Your whitelighter abilities. Test it out if you don't believe me. Try to orb.'

Paige looked confounded. 'Leo, I've never heard of 'whitelighter'; and what exactly is 'orbing'? You must have hit your head if you're beginning to speak nonsense.'

Leo frowned. 'Paige, this isn't funny.' Again Leo looked around the room to check that the door was still closed. It was. 'Look, Paige. No one would see you orb. So give it a try. Prove my theory that you just got your powers back.'

Paige rubbed her forehead, distressed. 'Leo, I just don't know what you are on about.'

Leo looked incredulous. 'Magic, Paige! That's what I'm on about!'

Paige shook her head. 'M – m – magic?' she stammered. 'Leo, have you gone nuts?'

'Paige, if you're kidding, it's time to stop joking around,' Leo said seriously.

'I'm not kidding, Leo,' said Paige sincerely.

Leo stared at Paige in disbelief. 'How can you not know about magic? How do you think you met your sisters?'

Paige rolled her eyes. 'Well, that's a stupid question, Leo. I obviously met them…' Paige trailed off, frowning. 'It's hazy… I met them when… when…' Once again, she trailed off, an anguished look on her face. Paige eyed Leo with watery eyes. 'I can't remember… Why can't I remember, Leo?'

'Magic's involved,' Leo muttered.

'Magic doesn't exist, Leo,' Paige replied. 'How can that be involved with how I met my sisters when magic doesn't even exist?'

'Magic's involved in how you met them, that's why,' repeated Leo.

Paige shook her head. 'It can't be. There's no such thing –'

'Magic must also be involved in why you can't remember,' Leo interrupted. 'And if it's affecting you, then it could be affecting…' Leo's eyes widened. 'We should go find Piper and Phoebe.'

Leo went over to the door and was about to open it when he noticed that Paige was not following. She had remained where she was and was staring at Leo.

'Paige! Come on! If evil's made you and your sisters forget about magic, then you could all be in danger!' Leo warned. 'The first thing we should do is get the three of you in the same room. At least then you'll have access to the Power of Three, even if you don't remember it exists.'

Paige shook her head. 'No. Leo, I'm not coming with. Magic does not exist, okay? It only exists in fairy tales and those are just fiction!'

'Paige, please,' implored Leo. 'I can understand your reaction to magic since some sort of spell or potion has made you forget, but the only proof you need is for you to orb.'

'There's no such thing…' Paige murmured.

Leo shook his head. 'If you think there's no such thing as magic, what do you think my old job was?'

Paige's eyes widened as she tried to come up with an answer. 'I – I thought I knew, but… it's hazy.'

Leo sighed. 'Then come with me to find your sisters,' Leo proposed gently. 'Together we may be able to sort this whole thing out.'

'No…' Paige replied. 'None of this makes sense, Leo, including everything you're saying. Magic just isn't real.'

Leo gave in. 'Fine. Stay here, but I've got to go and check that Piper and Phoebe are okay. I'll be back with them to help you.'

'Piper will probably try and make you see sense first,' Paige muttered.

Leo sighed. 'Just try orbing, Paige.' With those words, Leo left the office.

...

Over at P3, Piper and Phoebe had ran into the back office, shutting the door behind them.

'I've seen that woman out there before,' Phoebe proclaimed. 'I saw her in my dream last night.'

Piper's eyes widened. 'The woman you said we were running from?'

Phoebe nodded. 'Yes. Was it me remembering something that had already happened?'

'I don't know, but she's still out there and she's not just a figment of your imagination. She's real. So what are we going to do?' Piper asked, apprehension filling her voice.

'I don't know! You said that woman out there attacked earlier, right? How'd you manage to not get hurt that time?' Phoebe asked.

'Through luck, and I don't think we're going to be quite that lucky this time,' Piper said.

'Why do you think she hasn't just appeared in here yet?' Phoebe asked. 'Considering how she just appeared in P3, that door isn't exactly stopping her from getting into this office.'

Piper shook her head. 'She's patient. She knows that we have no way out of this office and…' Piper grimaced. 'However much we dislike Sanders, he's unconscious out there too. She knows that we won't just leave without him.'

Phoebe paled. 'We have to get him out of here.'

Piper nodded gravely. 'Yes, but somehow we have to get past her.'

Phoebe gulped. 'Well, we can't exactly deny the existence of magic now. That woman appeared in the blink of an eye and then threw Sanders across the room without laying a hand on him.'

Piper sighed. 'So you believe what Sanders has been trying to tell us this whole time now?'

Phoebe nodded. 'I think I do now. It's the only thing that makes sense for all of these fuzzy memories that I have of the past seven years…'

'So we're witches?' Piper asked for confirmation from her sister.

'Yes,' Phoebe agreed. 'We're witches and so is Paige, by the sounds of it.'

'And by the sounds of what Sanders was saying before, we must get into fights with – what did he call her? – warlocks quite often,' Piper said.

'Which means we must have some way to defend ourselves… Some way other than spells… Just before he was knocked out Sanders told us to use our powers,' Phoebe contemplated. 'What powers do you think he means?'

'I don't know, but we have to do something,' Piper said.

'I guess we'll just have to walk out there and face that wom – warlock, and see what happens,' Phoebe supposed.

Piper nodded. 'Okay, I guess…' She put her hand against the door handle and took a deep breath. 'Ready on three?'

Phoebe nodded.

'One. Two. Three!'

Piper abruptly opened the door and the two sisters ran out into the main P3 area. Both Halliwells stood their ground, assessing the situation in front of them.

The warlock was nowhere to be seen. Sanders still lay unconscious in the debris of table and chairs.

Phoebe turned to Piper and asked, 'Do you think she's gone?'

Just as the words left Phoebe's mouth, the warlock blinked in behind her and placed an athame near her throat. Phoebe's eyes widened in shock. Piper did not move, not wanting to make a movement that would cause the warlock to press the athame closer against Phoebe's neck.

'I guess this Charmed One doesn't know where the girl is either?' the warlock questioned.

'She doesn't,' Piper answered for Phoebe. 'Now let her go.'

'Or what? You don't have any leverage in this situation,' the warlock pointed out.

Phoebe took a chance and elbowed the warlock in the stomach. The surprise of this contact caused the warlock to drop the athame and stumble backwards, releasing her grip on Phoebe.

Phoebe turned around to face the warlock. She threw a punch at the warlock and the warlock fell back into some chairs. The warlock glowered at Phoebe before blinking out.

'Where did you learn to fight like that?' Piper asked Phoebe.

Phoebe picked up the athame from the ground. 'I can't quite remember, but I guess since we supposedly do this sort of thing often, some fighting skills came in handy.'

Both sisters scanned the club for any sign of movement. They knew the warlock would reappear any second. The fight had not yet ended.

The warlock blinked in a few paces in front of them. Conjuring a new athame into her hand, the warlock allowed the new athame to telekinetically propel towards Piper.

Piper's instincts told her to throw her hands up in defence. Ignoring the little voice inside that tried to quell this instinct – that she now assumed could be a part of Sanders' spell – Piper threw up her hands and flicked her wrists.

The athame froze mid-air. The warlock froze in place too.

Phoebe looked at Piper. 'Did you do that?'

'I… I think so,' Piper said, astounded.

Phoebe smirked. 'That's an awesome power. I wonder what mine is.'

Piper approached the frozen athame and knocked it to the ground. Sidestepping the frozen warlock, both sisters ran over to Sanders. Phoebe felt his pulse.

'He's okay. We should get him out of here before she unfreezes,' Phoebe said.

Piper agreed. 'Where do we go?'

'Back to the manor,' Phoebe suggested. 'We must have some helpful supplies back at the manor for this sort of thing.'

Piper nodded. 'Right.' She looked down at the unconscious Sanders. 'Now we've just got to figure out how to carry him out to the jeep.'

'Maybe my yet-to-show-itself power will help?' Phoebe offered.

Piper, who had clasped Sanders' arms, rolled her eyes. 'Just help me lift him from the ground by grabbing his feet.'

Footsteps sounded from the top of the staircase and soon Leo was visible as he ran down the stairs. He took a side glance at the frozen warlock before approaching Piper and Phoebe.

'I'm hoping that the frozen warlock over there means that you know about magic,' Leo said.

'Not quite. We're just improvising at the moment,' Piper said.

'And now we're kind of in a rush to get back to the manor,' Phoebe said. 'Do you mind helping us take Inspector Sanders to the car?'

'Sure,' said Leo. 'Tell me what you know about magic on the way.'

...

[Astral Vision]

Back at the police station, Paige had made her way back to Henry's office. She sat down at his desk.

Henry looked up from some paperwork he had been filling out. He immediately noticed Paige's watery eyes and distressed expression.

'Is everything okay?' he asked.

Paige shrugged and then after a bit of indecision decided to quietly ask: 'Henry, do you believe in magic?'

Henry blinked in confusion a couple of times before responding. 'That's a really random question, Paige.'

'I know,' said Paige. 'Could you answer the random question though?'

Henry shrugged. 'I don't know. Never really thought about it. How about you?'

Paige closed her eyes as she deliberated. 'I just… I don't know.'

Henry frowned. 'Then why ask?'

Paige shook her head. 'Forget it. It was just a… really random thought.' She ended this remark with a reassuring smile in Henry's direction, even if she herself did not feel reassured.

...

At the manor, the two Halliwells and Leo stood in the parlour. Sanders was still out-cold, laying still on the parlour sofa.

'According to Sanders and the warlock herself, we first bumped into this warlock yesterday,' Piper said.

'Which means that we may have already prepared some sort of way to stop the warlock before Sanders made us forget,' continued Phoebe.

'The first place to check would be the attic,' Leo said. 'That's where you do the majority of magic related tasks.'

Piper frowned. 'The attic's locked. We've never been in there.'

'That's the spell talking,' Leo said. 'You've definitely been in there. You use the attic practically every day.'

'Even if what you say is true, the attic is locked,' Phoebe said. 'I wouldn't even know where to look for the key.'

Leo furrowed his brow. 'Since we don't have time to look for the key, the easiest way to get inside the attic would probably be to orb inside… which means we need Paige here now.'

'Orb?' questioned Phoebe.

'It's a type of teleportation power,' Leo explained.

'I'll call Paige,' Piper said, picking her phone up and walking into the adjoining room.

Phoebe looked at Leo expectantly. 'So Piper has the power to freeze things –'

'And blow them up,' Leo added.

Phoebe looked impressed. 'Cool. And Paige can teleport –'

'And she has her own version of telekinesis,' Leo added.

Phoebe smiled. 'Really? Then what amazing power do I have?'

'The power to see both the future and the past,' Leo said. As he saw Phoebe's face drop in disappointment, he added, 'It's a great power! It's really useful! In addition to that, you used to have empathy and the power of levitation.'

'What happened to those?' Phoebe asked.

Leo grimaced, wishing he had not mentioned Phoebe's removed powers.

...

The moment her phone rang, Paige excused herself from Henry's office and went out into the corridor.

'Hey Piper. Tell me that you've knocked some sense into Leo by now,' Paige said as soon as she realised who the call was from. 'He was spouting nonsense earlier and –'

'He's right, Paige,' Piper replied.

'Sorry?' Paige said, disbelievingly.

'Paige, I don't have time to argue. Just get here now and then we'll explain everything,' Piper said.

Paige sighed. 'Fine.'

'We kind of need you now though, so if you could teleport straight here,' Piper said.

'Teleport?' Paige questioned.

'I think Leo called it orbing. He said that's one of your powers,' Piper explained, her voice sounding just as unsure of the legitimacy of this as Paige currently felt.

Paige sighed. 'I'd rather drive.'

'Fine. Drive here, but hurry,' Piper replied.

There the phone call ended and Paige returned to Henry's office to pick up her purse.

'Hi,' said Henry. 'Are you leaving?'

Paige nodded. 'Yeah, sorry. Something's come up at home.'

'Okay,' Henry said, shrugging. 'I guess I'll see you here tomorrow?'

Paige nodded. 'See you tomorrow.'

...

At the manor, Piper walked back into the parlour where Phoebe and Leo had remained, keeping watch over the still out-cold Sanders.

'Paige is on her way,' Piper said. She shot a glance at Leo as she added, 'Driving, not orbing.'

Leo smiled guiltily. 'I think she'll be orbing.'

'No. She said driving,' Piper insisted.

Leo shook his head and sheepishly pulled some car keys out of his jeans pocket.

'She'll be orbing,' Leo said.

Out in the car park of the police station, Paige looked around and noticed that her car was nowhere in sight. She rummaged through her purse, looking for her car keys, but could not find those either.

Paige glowered. 'Damn it, Leo!'

Piper and Phoebe stared at the car keys in Leo's hand.

'When did you become a pickpocket, Leo?' Phoebe asked, slightly amused.

'Since I knew that it would be the only way to get Paige to try out orbing,' Leo admitted. 'Plus, how else did you think I got all the way from the police station to P3? I needed some sort of mode of transport.'

Piper raised an eyebrow. 'Wait, why were you at the police station in the first place?'

Leo blushed. 'I –'

'What is that?' interrupted a bewildered Phoebe.

At the door of the room, blue and white lights had begun to culminate. Phoebe had been the first to notice this, and her outburst had caused Piper and Leo to turn and spot it too.

'That will be Paige,' Leo said just in time for the lights to dissolve to reveal a very pale Paige.

'I… I did it,' Paige said, utterly surprised. 'I can't believe that worked.'

'I told you magic was real,' Leo said a little smugly.

'Yeah, but…' Paige began, but noticed her car keys in Leo's hand and remembered she was annoyed at him. 'Could I have those back?'

'Oh, here,' said Leo, handing her the keys. 'Sorry about that.'

'So, please tell me what's going on,' Paige said.

'You're orbing us to the park,' Phoebe replied abruptly.

This caused Piper and Leo to look at Phoebe in surprise, as well as Paige.

'Since when? I thought we had decided to access the attic,' Piper pointed out.

'Yes, but I've been thinking,' Phoebe explained. 'Leo told me I had the power of premonition. Piper, I already told you that I'd seen that warlock in my dream so maybe that was a premonition…'

'You had a premonition last night?' Leo asked, but was shushed by Piper and Paige who wanted Phoebe to continue.

'And I can't believe I'm just noticing this now, but –' Phoebe paused to glance between herself and her two sisters. '– Piper, Paige. You two are wearing the same outfits that you were wearing in my dream. And so am I.'

Piper nodded. 'Okay.' She turned to Paige. 'Do you mind orbing us to the park?'

Paige's mouth was hanging open in shock. 'Leo never got around to telling me about warlocks…'

Piper and Phoebe grabbed Paige's hands.

...

Within seconds, the three sisters had materialised in the park. The area of the park they had orbed into was empty of all people except for one girl sitting on a park bench. She looked up at the sudden appearance of the Charmed Ones.

Phoebe and Paige recognised the girl immediately.

'That's the girl we were trying to protect in my dre – premonition!' Phoebe exclaimed.

Paige ran over to the girl. 'Andrea?' said Paige.

'What are you doing here?' Andrea asked. 'Mocking me earlier wasn't enough for you? Did you decided me wanted to find me to taunt me some more?'

'That was completely unintentional. I'll explain later. For now, we should get you out of here. Phoebe had a premonition that we'd see the warlock here,' Paige explained.

'You're not wrong.'

The three Charmed Ones and their innocent turned around to find the owner of the voice. Slowly approaching them was the warlock, a wicked grin on her face.

'You may have cloaked the girl from me, but I was patient. I just had to wait for you to go to the girl for me to figure out her whereabouts,' said the warlock.

The sisters placed themselves protectively in front of the young witch.

Piper flicked her wrists in the warlock's direction. However, instead of the warlock freezing, a nearby tree blew up.

'What the –' said Piper. 'Why couldn't I freeze you?'

The warlock let out a callous laugh. 'You still lack most of your magical memories, so trying to control which power you use on me will be difficult.'

Piper turned to her sisters. 'Do either of you two have a power you can help with?'

Phoebe looked at Paige. 'Leo said you have telekinesis. Try it.'

'How?' Paige asked.

'I don't know. Try to move something with your mind,' Piper suggested. She flicked her wrists at the warlock again.

This time the attack caused some dirt on the grass between the warlock and the sisters to explode upwards. This only seemed to amuse the warlock.

Paige looked around for something to move. She immediately spotted a nearby trashcan. Paige stared at the trashcan, willing it to move, but nothing happened. Then she tried waving her arm in case that worked. It did not.

The warlock had conjured an athame into her hand which she sent flying telekinetically towards the sisters.

'Ah, weird knife thingy!' Paige shouted, holding her hand out in front of herself in an attempt to stop the athame hitting her face.

The moment that Paige had verbalised her description of the athame, it dissolved into a bunch of blue and white orbs. Paige's eyes widened in surprise as the orbs changed direction and headed back towards the warlock. The athame re-materialised from the orbs moments before the warlock ducked out of the way.

The warlock got to her feet as the sisters commended Paige on accessing her power.

'I've been going too soft on you three just because it was fun when I realised you had no memories of magic. I think it's about time that you see what I can really do,' said the warlock.

The warlock began to chant an incantation under her breath. All of a sudden a wave of fire erupted from the warlock's hands.

The three sisters and their innocent tried to run, but the burst of fire was too fast.

This wave of fire was as thick and solid as a wall. It moved rapidly towards the sisters and their innocent. All the four of them could do was duck down to the ground to prevent being burnt. The wall of fire remained in the air, making it impossible to stand back up.

Paige reached instinctively for each of her sisters' hands. Phoebe then reached across the grass for Andrea's hand.

'Attic!' Piper called to Paige as a suggested destination.

Paige nodded, closed her eyes, and orbed the four of them out of the park.

...

Reappearing in the highest room of the manor, the three sisters looked around at the attic that they had no memory of ever seeing.

The walls were lined with antique furniture and objects that had belonged to past family members and ancestors. On a table sat a map and a crystal-on-a-string. There were vials littered around another small table; some vials were empty, others were filled with liquids of differing colours.

The most compelling sight of all, however, was on top of a wooden podium: a big old book that looked like it had been around for centuries.

Andrea looked at the sisters' in puzzlement. 'What's with the shocked faces?' she asked.

Phoebe blushed. 'Let's just say we don't quite remember everything we should right now,' she explained.

Piper looked at Andrea quizzically. 'That includes us not remembering why that warlock is after you – that is if you did tell us yesterday.'

Andrea sighed and removed an amulet from around her neck to show the sisters.

'This amulet is similar to your Book of Shadows,' Andrea began. When this opening statement received blank looks, Andrea pointed at the big book on the podium. 'Every witch family has their own Book of Shadows – a book that contains magical knowledge and warnings for future descendants. For decades, my family have been storing our magical knowledge within this amulet, instead of within a Book of Shadows. It makes it more portable for demon fighting – we, er, travel a lot.'

'And the warlock is after that amulet?' Paige asked.

Andrea nodded. 'Yes. Bad magic cannot directly affect the amulet though, which is why the warlock cannot just summon this away from me.'

'Why have you been stuck with looking after the amulet? Do you not have any other family member that could help you out?' Phoebe wondered.

'Once we realised that the warlock was after the amulet, I was the best choice in the family for protecting it due to my power,' Andrea said.

'What is your power?' Phoebe asked.

'I can teleport. It's a weaker form of teleportation than what other magical beings can use. I can't take anyone with me when I teleport, nor can I teleport a great distance,' Andrea explained. 'Despite that, it's still useful for getting away from bad guys.'

Piper nodded in understanding.

Paige wandered over to the Book of Shadows, noticing a scrap of paper that lay on top.

'This is my handwriting…' Paige muttered, holding up the scrap of paper.

'What is it?' Piper asked.

'Considering what we've been told about our heritage today, I gather think it's supposed to be a spell. It does seem to rhyme, so what else could it be?' said Paige.

The warlock blinked in, sneering. 'You know, this game of cat and mouse is never going to end, so you may as well just give up the girl.'

'Never,' said Piper stubbornly. She flicked her wrists and, this time, the warlock froze. She turned to Paige. 'Try the spell on her!'

Paige shook her head. 'I don't think I can say it alone. It's written in plural.'

'Then we'll say it with you,' Phoebe said, joining Paige by her side to read over her shoulder. Piper did the same.

Together the three sisters began to read the spell, while Andrea stood by the side of the attic as a bystander.

'From the spite of this evil, ourselves we shall defend,' began the Charmed Ones. 'Evil's search has come to a failed end. Upon the Power of Three we shall call, to ensure this particular evil's fall.'

As the spell was completed, the warlock unfroze and erupted into flames.

Due to their current lack of magical memories, this vanquish sight seemed like a first to the sisters. Therefore, their reactions were ones of shock and terror, accompanied by flinching back from the flames and some wincing.

...

A couple of hours later, sitting in the living room were Piper, Paige, Leo and a conscious Sanders. Andrea had safely returned to her family with the amulet still in her possession.

Sanders was writing something on a notepad.

Piper rolled her eyes. 'I would have thought you would have already had a reversal spell figured out.'

Sanders sighed. 'I've never had the need to reverse this spell in the past.'

'Why would you even have a spell like that in your possession in the first place?' asked Leo in a very Elder-like tone, despite not having been one for a while.

Sanders turned to Leo. 'My family has always had memory spells as their speciality. Eight years ago, when I became a police officer, I decided that I may as well use that authority to help the magical community: specifically other witches.'

Leo furrowed his brow. 'What do you mean?'

'Well, witches – not just the Charmed Ones – are constantly getting involved with crime scenes while trying to protect innocents from demons,' Sanders explained. 'And no offence, but the Elders never get off their butts or send the Cleaners out to help witches with this sort of issue. I decided that I'd try and get put on assignments at stations in varying cities and states. That way, whilst there, I'd be able to look into unsolved cases that I believed involved local witches and try to help them out by taking over the case and tampering with the evidence and accounts.'

Leo nodded. 'You know what you're doing could be considered as illegal.'

'It might be, but it's the only way to help other witches out of these legal jams, since the Elders won't do it,' Sanders said unashamedly.

'How often have you kept us out of trouble? I seem to remember many cops investigating our involvement with crime scenes over the past seven or so years, despite the details being hazy,' Piper said.

Sanders sighed. 'Well, I can only help out where the police assign me, and I never had been assigned to San Francisco – except for once, for a couple of days, a few years ago – but let's not talk about that now… This May, when I heard that you were dead, I made sure that I was assigned to San Francisco.'

Paige frowned. 'How did you make sure? By the sounds of it, you don't get a choice over where the police assign you…'

Sanders sighed. 'I was very persuasive.'

'So you used magic?' Leo asked.

Sanders nodded. 'I had to figure out what went on here, because it was obvious to me that if the Charmed Ones were dead, then only something powerful and demonic could have caused such a death.'

'Does your whitelighter agree with your line of work?' Leo questioned.

Sanders grimaced. 'Yes, my late whitelighter did.'

'Your late whitelighter?' Leo asked.

Sanders sighed. 'My whitelighter was killed a month ago by that darklighter that I'm sure the Charmed Ones got around to vanquishing.'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'Well, everything's still a little too hazy right now to remember whether or not we did.'

'You did,' Leo confirmed.

'I have no recollection of what a 'darklighter' is right now, so that sentence doesn't make much sense,' Paige added.

'Right,' said Sanders, looking back down at the piece of paper in front of him. 'I should probably continue with the spell.'

'What made you think that?' Piper asked sarcastically.

Phoebe entered the living room, a smile on her face and a key in her hand. 'I found the key to the attic! It had fallen behind my bedside drawer.' Before her sisters could comment, Phoebe continued excitedly. 'How did I find it, you wonder? Well, my amazing premonition power showed me where it was.'

Leo smiled. 'I told you that your premonition power was just as good as your sisters' powers.'

Sanders interrupted with: 'The spell's done.'

The three sisters and Leo all turned to face Sanders.

'Are you sure this won't mess things up like your last spell?' Piper asked doubtfully.

Sanders shrugged. 'Well, I've made the wording as exact as possible and this spell involves no personal gain… It shouldn't backfire.'

'Then cast away,' Phoebe said. 'I, for one, would like to have my memories of the last seven or so years back intact.'

Piper and Paige both nodded in agreement.

Sanders nodded and began to recite the spell: 'Enchantments past shall be undone, their course of power shall no longer run. Memories that were once intact, return once more to make magic a fact.'

As the Inspector finished saying the spell, a fluster of white lights appeared above the three sisters' heads. After a moment, the lights divided into three equal flusters and each one shot down into a sister.

Phoebe rubbed her forehead a little in reaction to the impact of the spell, while Paige could only blink in response. Piper lost her footing a little and Leo took her arm to help support her.

Piper thanked Leo before turning to face Sanders, a glare on her face.

'What gave you the right to perform that memory spell on us yesterday?' Piper asked, seething.

'I guess your full memory is back then,' Sanders said, stepping back a little at the tone of Piper's voice. 'The reversal spell was successful.'

'Yes, it was,' Phoebe said, speaking sombrely. 'I can't believe you did that spell on us just because you didn't want us to remember that you were a witch.'

Sanders frowned. 'Look, I'm sorry. It's just that after the three of you found out what I did, you were trying to insist that I stopped doing it.'

Phoebe silently walked out of the room.

'Only because we've had memory spells go awry in the past,' Paige began, fleeting a glance at Piper as she said it, before returning her sights to Sanders. 'And the impact of your spell on us just proves that we were right.'

Leo nodded in agreement. 'When you use that spell on the mortals who you are trying to protect from finding out about magic, you never know what else you're making them forget.'

Sanders stood there, speechless, while he contemplated how best to respond.

Amidst the silence, Phoebe re-entered the living room, a file in her hands. She held it out for Sanders to take.

'You do realise that if you hadn't have cast the memory spell on us yesterday, we would have given the file back there and then,' Phoebe said.

'I guess we should at least thank you for that part,' Paige said gratefully.

'For what part?' Leo asked, confused.

Piper turned to Leo and said, 'Sanders was using that file as a plausible reason for the case of our almost-deaths during the basement explosion earlier this year. A plausible reason that will in no way lead back to the possibility of us being secretly magical.'

Leo nodded in understanding.

'That part we were fine with, since it doesn't actually include potentially dangerous spells,' Phoebe said.

Sanders sighed, looking only at the file now in his possession. 'Thank you, and I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused…' he said gingerly. 'I think I'd better leave now.'

'You should,' said Piper.

...

After Sanders had left, Piper turned to Leo and beckoned for him to follow her into the kitchen. He did so, leaving Phoebe and Paige alone in the living room.

Phoebe turned to Paige, smiling.

'So something good must have come out of today for you,' Phoebe implored.

Paige narrowed her eyes in confusion at first, before realising what Phoebe was hinting at. 'Oh, my powers?'

'Yes! Your whitelighter powers! How did you earn them back?' Phoebe asked curiously.

Paige shrugged. 'I don't know. I was talking to Leo when it happened. He was all mopey about not knowing what to do with his life and I guess I gave him some advice…' Paige's eyes widened in realisation. 'I basically did what the Elders had asked me to do from the beginning… What I refused to help them do… I guided Leo, gave him whitelighter-advice – even if I didn't know that any magic was involved…'

'If they really want Leo back though, why don't they just give him his powers back?' Phoebe wondered. 'It would be so much simpler for everyone.'

...

In the kitchen, Piper let out a sigh. 'When we spoke this morning, Leo, I may not have remembered everything about our magical background, but my feelings were true.'

Leo took Piper's hand. 'Honey, I'm not mad at you about our little argument this morning. I spoke to Paige earlier and she made me see what I needed to know, even if she didn't know everything herself due to that little spell.'

Piper shook her head, looking up at him. 'Leo, I… I didn't say everything I wanted to say earlier.'

Leo sighed. '…because I left halfway through the argument? I know, but can't we just forget about the argument entirely? Start anew.'

Piper frowned, taking Leo's hand. 'Firstly, I don't want to forget anything after the day I've had. And secondly…' Piper paused and tightened her grip on Leo's hand. 'Leo, I'm scared… For us.'

Leo looked puzzled. 'Scared?'

Piper took a deep breath. 'I'm scared that if you did become a whitelighter again, they'll just try to break this family up again.'

Leo placed his other hand on top of Piper's hand supportively. 'Piper, their M.O. is not all about splitting this family up. They just don't understand that I can care for my family while also putting one hundred percent into my duties. I would not be trying to go back to being a whitelighter if I believed that it would in any way take me away from you and the boys. I'm sure I can keep the two balanced…' Leo looked up at the ceiling, scowling as he concluded: 'That is, if I can ever get them to listen…'

Piper looked Leo directly in the eyes. 'How do you know you can make it different to how it was before? Every time we thought they could not take you further away, it still happened.'

'You can trust my belief that it won't happen again,' Leo stated. 'I'm going to try and get reinstated as a whitelighter, but this time the Elders will have to go by my terms.'

Leo took Piper into a consoling hug as they both contemplated Leo's words.

...

[Astral Vision]

September 21st 2005

The next morning, Paige walked into Henry's office at the station.

'Hey,' Henry said, looking up from his desk.

'Hi,' Paige said smiling, taking a seat by his desk.

'How are you? You seemed a little off yesterday,' Henry implored.

'I'm… better than yesterday,' Paige said, nodding. 'Yesterday was a little weird, but everything is normal now. Well, technically less normal than what I thought it was yesterday, but the normal that I'm used to.' Paige noticed Henry's confused expression and continued: 'I mean, everything's back to the way it should be, which is normal for me, even if it isn't –' Paige paused part way through her sentence. 'I'm rambling, aren't I?'

Henry grinned. 'Yeah, you are.'

Paige blushed. 'Cliff's notes version: I'm okay.'

'Good,' said Henry, standing up. 'Anyway, I've got a parolee to find. Are you going to come with this time?' He paused to smirk. 'Or is there another person you've got to help waiting outside this office?'

Paige laughed as she stood up, making her way out of the office with Henry. 'You say that like it happens all the time!'

...

A sleeping Piper rolled over in bed. The absence of Leo lying next to her woke her up in a worry.

Piper sat up in bed and looked around, concerned. She looked at her alarm clock and saw that it was gone eleven.

'Leo?' she voiced quietly.

A noise from downstairs caught her attention. Piper put a dressing gown over her pyjamas and made her way down the stairs.

As Piper exited the staircase into the foyer, she found the front door open, a ladder propped up on the porch.

Piper walked out onto the porch just as Leo got down from the ladder, holding an empty nest.

Unlike the last few days, Leo was clean shaven and lacking bags under his eyes. More importantly, he looked happy.

'Morning,' Leo said, giving Piper a kiss. 'Did you enjoy your lie in?'

'Good morning,' Piper replied. 'It's so strange to see you still at the house this late in the day. I thought you'd gone on one of your daily walks around the city when I woke up to find you gone.'

'You just looked so peaceful that I didn't want to wake you. I thought you deserved a lie-in too, so I took care of getting the boys ready and Phoebe took them to day care and preschool,' Leo explained. 'As to my daily walks, I think I am done with those. I have an idea of where to start now, and it doesn't involve aimless wandering,' Leo admitted.

'I see,' said Piper, smirking. 'Does it involve fixing up the house instead, because you've already been on that pursuit once before, after you fell from grace all those months ago.'

Leo smiled sheepishly. 'Oh this?' He looked at the empty nest in his hands before turning his gaze back to Piper. 'It's just that I knew this nest had become a nuisance, and since I woke up pretty early this morning, I thought I'd try to remove this bird's nest. The baby birds seem to have left, but it's probably best not to leave the nest there for new birds to find and use.'

Piper nodded. 'So what exactly is your new plan?'

Leo's response was simple: 'Earning my wings back by doing what a future whitelighter does best.'

---

Next episode: Phoebe makes a difficult decision, and the sisters find themselves up against a threat they never thought they would have to face.

---

[cyma]

I'm getting so annoyed that I'm still trying to find the time and a nice quiet spot where I can read your latest chapter. I blame summer vacations and noisy cousins

[Chrisaholic]

Still great work, cyma. Thanks for posting it here!!

[cyma]

Jul 11, 2014 13:28:50 GMT -5 Chrisaholic said:

Still great work, cyma. Thanks for posting it here!!

What did I do?

[Chrisaholic]

Oops, my bad. I meant Astral Vision. Hope you can forgive me my stupidness!! *argh*

[Esmeralda]

Finally got a chance to read this and thoroughly enjoyed it. As usual I rolled my eyes when you used everyone's last name when this was just a new chapter, not a new story, and got my usual kick out of the fact that this obviously takes place in the fictional city of San Francisco, England, since they all speak with a British accent, but I could look past that because I enjoyed the plot so much - I believe it's my favorite of your "episodes" so far.

I loved you having a female warlock and a male witch. I loved the male witch who seemed to be such a bad guy earlier in the series actually ending up being a good guy - and love the idea of him casting a spell on the sisters (and other witches) to do what the Elders should do, but don't. Then to throw personal gain into it, making the sisters forget about the existence of magic, and their past being "hazy"...oh, such, such fun!!!

And then throwing in an innocent into the fun (and having her family use an amulet as their BoS!), oh, yes, fantastic idea!

I was intrigued with the idea of Piper wanting to see P3 and am wondering if she'll use the proceeds to either buy a restaurant or (hopefully) start her own catering business, since I always thought she'd rather cook than manage, as she'd have to in a restaurant (I think the comics got it wrong on that one...)

I love how Paige and Henry are slowly getting to know each other - no rush - and at least up to this point, no sign of Coop or even Phoebe still going on her baby search.

And, of course, my favorite part was the way you had Leo react towards losing his powers and having no identity in this world, and Paige being able to help him. Now I can't wait to find out if Leo can convince his bosses to let him have his wings back under his terms - I definitely hope it includes getting rid of Odin!

I really wish that Season Eight could've been more like this.

Great job!

[Astral Vision]

Thanks, Cyma (I've replied to your review on FF), Chris, and Es for your responses to the latest installment.


In reply to your review, Es:

kick out of the fact that this obviously takes place in the fictional city of San Francisco, England, since they all speak with a British accent

As you know, I don't notice this sort of thing when writing. So for the fun of it, please give me one example from that chapter of something that seems especially British to you. xD

I loved the male witch who seemed to be such a bad guy earlier in the series actually ending up being a good guy - and love the idea of him casting a spell on the sisters (and other witches) to do what the Elders should do, but don't. Then to throw personal gain into it, making the sisters forget about the existence of magic, and their past being "hazy"...oh, such, such fun!!!

I would think that CSI: P3 is the main episode for hinting that Sanders was at least magical, but I'm glad that the fact that he turned out to be a witch was not seen as a bad thing. He doesn't generally cast the spells on witches. He casts them on normal people that may be close to figuring out a witch's secret due to lack of help from the Elders. Putting the spell to use on the sisters was only a fear response to their negative reaction to his use of magic on mortals.

and having her family use an amulet as their BoS!

I appreciate that you liked that idea. I needed to think up a better reason for the warlock to be after the innocent than that the warlock wanted the innocent's powers. Then there was the idea of it being some sort of protection amulet, but that's been done many times before too. So coming up with the use of the amulet being what it ended up being wasn't a simple task.

no sign of Coop

Nope. He won't be showing up for a while yet. I'm still thinking through his background and especially how to work with his powers and that ring. Maybe editing some of the things that were found out about Cupids in season eight, by changing things completely. Obviously I will still have to keep to the canon of season two Cupids as that has already happened in the timeline that the fanfiction is taking place in.

And, of course, my favorite part was the way you had Leo react towards losing his powers and having no identity in this world, and Paige being able to help him. Now I can't wait to find out if Leo can convince his bosses to let him have his wings back under his terms - I definitely hope it includes getting rid of Odin!

They kind of missed that part out in season seven - The closest they had was in Scry Hard and that mainly ended up about Leo being afraid of looking weak in front of Wyatt - so I thought I may as well have it brought up now that Leo knows that he could become a whitelighter again.

I really wish that Season Eight could've been more like this.

Great job!

^_^ Thanks!

[Esmeralda]

Jul 27, 2014 16:50:06 GMT -5 Astral Vision said:

Thanks, Cyma (I've replied to your review on FF), Chris, and Es for your responses to the latest installment.


In reply to your review, Es:

kick out of the fact that this obviously takes place in the fictional city of San Francisco, England, since they all speak with a British accent

As you know, I don't notice this sort of thing when writing. So for the fun of it, please give me one example from that chapter of something that seems especially British to you. xD

Oh, there were so many of them! The one that mainly made me grin was Leo at the end talking about Piper "taking a lie-in”. That’s something an American would never say and I could hear him saying it in a British accent (and Piper responding in one) which was HILARIOUS! Ditto for "half ten" or "gone eleven" when telling time or "needing jabs" rather than “need shots” . There were a lot of others, all that made me think that this takes place in San Francisco, England, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.

I loved the male witch who seemed to be such a bad guy earlier in the series actually ending up being a good guy - and love the idea of him casting a spell on the sisters (and other witches) to do what the Elders should do, but don't. Then to throw personal gain into it, making the sisters forget about the existence of magic, and their past being "hazy"...oh, such, such fun!!!

I would think that CSI: P3 is the main episode for hinting that Sanders was at least magical, but I'm glad that the fact that he turned out to be a witch was not seen as a bad thing. He doesn't generally cast the spells on witches. He casts them on normal people that may be close to figuring out a witch's secret due to lack of help from the Elders. Putting the spell to use on the sisters was only a fear response to their negative reaction to his use of magic on mortals.

Well, it’s been ages since I read “CSI: P3” (I had time to read the next chapter, not skim over the previous ones) and with my bad memory I truly couldn’t tell you if that one had an indication that he was a witch (and if I did pick up on that, I probably thought that he was a warlock) or not. It’s why I usually don’t like to read fics until they’re completed (I’m one of those types who always reads the last chapter first; part of why I love books), but this is different.  Like I love to do with books, I'll probably wait until it's completed and then re-read the whole thing again - that's when I'll usually pick up stuff I missed the first time.

and having her family use an amulet as their BoS!

I appreciate that you liked that idea. I needed to think up a better reason for the warlock to be after the innocent than that the warlock wanted the innocent's powers. Then there was the idea of it being some sort of protection amulet, but that's been done many times before too. So coming up with the use of the amulet being what it ended up being wasn't a simple task.

I’m sure it wasn’t, and I tip my cap to you for coming up with something different. What I liked the best is the fact that it gave Andrea a chance to tell the Charmed Ones (I’ll never call them Halliwells, since that excludes a certain Matthews, part of why I dislike her inclusion) about their own Book of Shadows.

no sign of Coop

Nope. He won't be showing up for a while yet. I'm still thinking through his background and especially how to work with his powers and that ring. Maybe editing some of the things that were found out about Cupids in season eight, by changing things completely. Obviously I will still have to keep to the canon of season two Cupids as that has already happened in the timeline that the fanfiction is taking place in.

Well, if you’re going to stick to that canon, I hope you remember what Brad Kern forgot – the cupid in Season Two, wasn’t a cupid – at that point cupids didn’t exist - he was Cupid, and his ring couldn’t be used by others – it was used to amplify and direct Cupid’s powers, not the only reason he had powers, which was as stupid as someone becoming a full whitelighter just because their father was one.

I really hope you decide to bring Cupid back (even if Coop was hotter…I’m sure that’s why they chose a different guy – at that point, Phoebe HAD to have the hot guys…) – he had *so* much more chemistry with Phoebe and made her a better person, not a worse person. And the idea that the Elders had sent him to her because they were sorry for screwing up her love life is one of the worst plotlines the series ever came up with - if that's the case, Piper would have no fear about Leo getting his wings back because then no way the Elders would want to break up their family. *roll eyes*

But, naturally, that's your choice, not mine - your universe, your rules, especially since it takes place in San Francisco, England.

And, of course, my favorite part was the way you had Leo react towards losing his powers and having no identity in this world, and Paige being able to help him. Now I can't wait to find out if Leo can convince his bosses to let him have his wings back under his terms - I definitely hope it includes getting rid of Odin!

They kind of missed that part out in season seven - The closest they had was in Scry Hard and that mainly ended up about Leo being afraid of looking weak in front of Wyatt - so I thought I may as well have it brought up now that Leo knows that he could become a whitelighter again.

Okay, there goes my faulty memory again. What happened that Leo knows that he could become one again?

I really wish that Season Eight could've been more like this.

Great job!

^_^ Thanks!

[Astral Vision]

Jul 28, 2014 2:08:27 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

Well, it’s been ages since I read “CSI: P3” (I had time to read the next chapter, not skim over the previous ones) and with my bad memory I truly couldn’t tell you if that one had an indication that he was a witch (and if I did pick up on that, I probably thought that he was a warlock) or not. It’s why I usually don’t like to read fics until they’re completed (I’m one of those types who always reads the last chapter first; part of why I love books), but this is different.  Like I love to do with books, I'll probably wait until it's completed and then re-read the whole thing again - that's when I'll usually pick up stuff I missed the first time.

I could never read the last page of a book first, but I do understand the long wait between chapters issue. I appreciate that people are still reading despite that. Though perhaps it would help if I included a previously summary at the top of each chapter?

Well, if you’re going to stick to that canon, I hope you remember
what Brad Kern forgot – the cupid in Season Two, wasn’t a cupid – at
that point cupids didn’t exist - he was Cupid, and his ring
couldn’t be used by others – it was used to amplify and direct Cupid’s
powers, not the only reason he had powers, which was as stupid as
someone becoming a full whitelighter just because their father was one.

I
really hope you decide to bring Cupid back (even if Coop was hotter…I’m
sure that’s why they chose a different guy – at that point, Phoebe HAD
to have the hot guys…) – he had *so* much more chemistry with Phoebe and
made her a better person, not a worse person. And the idea that the
Elders had sent him to her because they were sorry for screwing up her
love life is one of the worst plotlines the series ever came up with -
if that's the case, Piper would have no fear about Leo getting his wings
back because then no way the Elders would want to break up their
family. *roll eyes*

xD I have major plans for him. And don't worry, the Elders sending him to Phoebe won't be his reason for showing up.

Okay, there goes my faulty memory again. What happened that Leo knows that he could become one again?

In the previous chapter, he got shot by a darklighter arrow and it actually affected him so he knows his wings are only clipped and therefore that he could become a whitelighter again. Though I guess you could say that he doesn't know as such, he only thinks that it is possible. It's the sisters who know for certain since the Elders want Paige to guide him.

[Esmeralda]

Jul 28, 2014 12:57:15 GMT -5 Astral Vision said:

Jul 28, 2014 2:08:27 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

Well, it’s been ages since I read “CSI: P3” (I had time to read the next chapter, not skim over the previous ones) and with my bad memory I truly couldn’t tell you if that one had an indication that he was a witch (and if I did pick up on that, I probably thought that he was a warlock) or not. It’s why I usually don’t like to read fics until they’re completed (I’m one of those types who always reads the last chapter first; part of why I love books), but this is different.  Like I love to do with books, I'll probably wait until it's completed and then re-read the whole thing again - that's when I'll usually pick up stuff I missed the first time.

I could never read the last page of a book first, but I do understand the long wait between chapters issue. I appreciate that people are still reading despite that. Though perhaps it would help if I included a previously summary at the top of each chapter?

That would be a great idea! And maybe also at the end of the chapter explain pieces from previous chapters that would make what happens in the current one make sense – like the CSI-P3 thing.

Well, if you’re going to stick to that canon, I hope you remember what Brad Kern forgot – the cupid in Season Two, wasn’t a cupid – at that point cupids didn’t exist - he was Cupid, and his ring couldn’t be used by others – it was used to amplify and direct Cupid’s powers, not the only reason he had powers, which was as stupid as someone becoming a full whitelighter just because their father was one.

I really hope you decide to bring Cupid back (even if Coop was hotter…I’m sure that’s why they chose a different guy – at that point, Phoebe HAD to have the hot guys…) – he had *so* much more chemistry with Phoebe and made her a better person, not a worse person. And the idea that the Elders had sent him to her because they were sorry for screwing up her love life is one of the worst plotlines the series ever came up with - if that's the case, Piper would have no fear about Leo getting his wings back because then no way the Elders would want to break up their family. *roll eyes*

I have major plans for him. And don't worry, the Elders sending him to Phoebe won't be his reason for showing up.

*sigh* By “him” I assume you mean Coop. Well, if you can explain how Cupid can be Cupid while Coop is still just a cupid, more power to you. I’m just glad it won’t be the Elders who send him to Phoebe.

Okay, there goes my faulty memory again. What happened that Leo knows that he could become one again?

In the previous chapter, he got shot by a darklighter arrow and it actually affected him so he knows his wings are only clipped and therefore that he could become a whitelighter again. Though I guess you could say that he doesn't know as such, he only thinks that it is possible. It's the sisters who know for certain since the Elders want Paige to guide him.

*nods* Gotcha. Still hate Paige being turned into a whitelighter while she’s still alive (the same way I hated Chris being one when he was still alive), but since you had to use S4-7 as canon, it’s understandable. That’s something else that you would need to add after the chapter so readers who had to wait a while would understand.

[Astral Vision]

Disorder of the Phoenix

October 28th 2005

Phoebe walked into the manor, shutting the door behind her. Walking through the foyer, she called out: "Hello? Anybody home? Sister witches?" As Phoebe peered into the living room, a wide eyed Piper stood up from the sofa, where she had been deep in discussion with a man who Phoebe thought looked very familiar.

"Are you crazy?" Piper said to Phoebe.

"What's going on?" Phoebe asked.

"Hi," the familiar-looking man said to Phoebe.

Phoebe threw a smile and a pleasant "hi" in his direction before waiting for an explanation from Piper.

Piper froze the familiar-looking man and wandered over to Phoebe, ushering her back into the foyer.

"Hi," Phoebe said to Piper, completely confused at what she had said that was so wrong.

"Sister witches?" Piper emphasised. "I can't believe you said that! Are you really that immature? It's not like we just became witches the other day."

"Oohh," Phoebe said, realising her mistake. "I wasn't exactly expecting us to have any visitors here and I feel really good about something I just did and this is the best I've felt in three days, so I'm in a bit of a good mood." Phoebe peered over at the frozen man on the sofa again. "Who's he?"

"You've met him once before," Piper said, sighing. "It's Rob. The banker. The banker that denied my loan when I was first looking at buying the club."

"Oh," said Phoebe as she put the name and the face to the memory. Then Phoebe realised something else about this whole situation: "Wow, déjà vu!" She laughed it off. "What's he doing here now?"

Piper sighed. "It just so happens that Rob is sorting out the loan for the buyer that is interested in buying P3. Stephanie – the buyer – was supposed to come here today too to discuss the paperwork and finances, but she backed out and said she'd be here later."

"Does Leo know Rob is here? I mean you and him did –"

"Nothing ever happened. We mixed business with personal last time, but thank goodness that did not go all the way to the bedroom,' Piper exclaimed. "Yes, Leo does know Rob is here. Like me, Rob is now happily married. Is that okay with you?" Piper finished this with a disgruntled eye roll.

The two were interrupted by the front door opening. Paige walked in, holding her phone to her ear. "Will it be ready to pick up in the next couple of hours?"

"Paige, out," Phoebe ushered.

"Hang on," Paige said to the person on the phone before covering the receiver end and saying, "Why?"

"We have a frozen mortal in the living room," Phoebe explained.

"Gotcha," Paige said, walking back out of the house and putting the phone back to her ear.

Piper walked back into the living room and returned to her standing spot next to Rob. The scene unfroze and Rob stood up, and walked with Piper over to Phoebe in the foyer.

"It's Phoebe, isn't it?" Rob said.

"Good memory," said Phoebe, nodding. Phoebe pointed in the direction of the front door. "And that…"

The front door opened again and Paige walked in, the phone to her ear still. "Great, I'll be there in an hour. Thanks. Bye." She put the phone down and looked from Rob to Piper to Phoebe.

"…is our sister, Paige. You didn't meet her last time."

"Hi," said Paige.

"Rob," Rob introduced himself.

Smiling at Rob, Piper said, "So we'll meet at P3 in an hour or so to sign the paperwork?"

Rob nodded. "Yes. Stephanie did say she should be able to make it through the traffic to P3 for that time."

"Okay, thanks," Piper said. The two walked over to the door and Piper let him out. "See you later."

Turning back to her sisters in the foyer, Piper looked quizzically at Phoebe.

"What now?" Phoebe asked.

"It's ten o'clock in the morning," Piper pointed out.

"I can read the time, Piper," Phoebe said.

Ignoring Phoebe's retort, Piper continued: "I don't need to be at P3 for another hour to sort out the paperwork with Rob and the lady buying the club. Paige has today off from volunteering at the station because she has an interview to prepare for this afternoon. You, you're supposed to be at the Bay Mirror all day today."

Phoebe made no reply. She stared sheepishly at her sisters.

Paige furrowed her brow. "You're right. Phoebe left an hour and a half ago for work. I know because I left at the same time to go and run some errands in preparation for my interview."

"Well, I did go to work," Phoebe began a little reluctantly.

"And when you came in just now, you said you were already in a good mood because you felt like you had done something good," Piper said. "What happened at the Bay Mirror in such a short space of time?"

Phoebe gulped, perhaps unsure of how she was going to phrase it or of the response that Piper would come back with.

"Phoebe?" Piper persisted.

"I…" Phoebe paused. "I quit my job at the Bay Mirror."

…

The three sisters were sat in the kitchen, each with a steaming mug of coffee in front of them.

"So why did you quit?" Paige asked.

"And why's that such a good thing?" Piper asked. "If it makes you happy to have quit, then I'm happy for you, but I thought you loved being Ask Phoebe."

"I am happy I quit. It's the best thing I could have done for myself," Phoebe said.

"The money was good, you were oddly somehow famous by all of it," Paige began, pausing when she noticed Phoebe fidget uncomfortably at those words. "Most of all, being an advice columnist was perfect for you. You put your all into that column."

Phoebe shook her head. "Quitting was a choice I had to make." Before her sisters could interject again, she added, "And it was the right choice."

The doorbell rang and before Piper could stand up, Phoebe was already halfway out of the kitchen.

"I'll get it," Phoebe said. "Seeing as the person at the door has saved me from this interrogation, the least I can do is thank them."

Phoebe made her way out of the kitchen. Piper and Paige exchanged concerned looks before following their sister into the foyer.

Phoebe opened the front door and her smile disappeared the moment she saw who it was: David Sanders.

"You're not getting a thank you from me," she said, beginning to shut the door on him.

"Phoebe! Wait!" he said, stopping the door from shutting completely.

"Let go of the door," Phoebe said. "Or –"

"Or what? Piper can't freeze me. And I doubt you're going to have Paige orb me away in full view of the street," David said.

Phoebe sighed, not lessening her grip on the front door. "What do you want?"

"We need to talk. You know that that's what I want," David said.

"Fine," Phoebe said, a little irritably. She looked back at her considerably confused sisters and said, "I'm just going to go and get this cop to leave us alone. I'll be back as soon as possible."

Piper nodded. "Be back soon. We need to talk too."

Phoebe sighed, but agreed.

...

Not long later, Phoebe and David were sat in a small diner. A waitress walked over to their booth and placed a coffee in front of each of them.

"Thanks," David said as the waitress walked off.

"I don't see what we need to talk about," Phoebe said. "You ruined what I thought was my career. You can't fix that with a coffee."

"I didn't ruin your career. You still had a career this morning until you decided to quit," David defended.

"Oh, you can't say that," Phoebe said angrily. "I quit because my career was a lie. And from the moment I marched into Elise's office and handed in my resignation, I felt better than I have in a long time."

"You loved your career up until two days ago," David argued.

"And whose fault was that?" Phoebe put forward, staring accusingly at David.

...

"What is going on between Phoebe and that inspector?" Paige wondered aloud, back at the manor.

"Who knows?" Piper replied. "She better tell us the moment she gets back though."

Paige agreed, but then she frowned. "She might have to tell you and I'll just have to catch up later."

"What's up?" Piper asked.

"I've got a charge calling," Paige explained. She looked imploringly at Piper. "Could you do me a favour?"

Piper nodded slowly.

"The suit I dropped off at the dry cleaners yesterday is supposed to be ready today and I told them on the phone just before that I'd be there in –" Paige paused to look at her watch to check the time. "– twenty minutes time. I need it for my interview this afternoon and –"

"Say no more," Piper said. "Go and help your charge. I'll pick up your outfit on my way to P3. When you finish helping your charge, you can drop by the club to get it."

Paige looked reluctant.

"Paige, what's wrong with going to P3?" Piper enquired.

"Will Leo be there?" Paige asked as a reply.

Piper sighed. "Of course. He's setting the club up for tonight's function. You can't avoid him forever."

"Yeah… I know… but ever since I got my whitelighter abilities back…" Paige began.

"I realise it's awkward for you, but maybe we should discuss this later?" Piper hinted. "You've got a charge to help, right?"

"Right," Paige agreed. "Thanks for the favour. The dry cleaning ticket is in my car!" she added as she orbed out.

...

"This conversation is going nowhere," David finally said.

"I know. I don't understand the point of us even having this conversation other than for me to reiterate that you need to leave me and my sisters alone," Phoebe said. "Go and find some other witches to bug in another city, state, country, dimension or plane, whatever. I'm not fussy where you go as long as you leave my family alone."

"No. That's not what I meant," David said. "This conversation is going nowhere, because we're going in circles. I admit that what I did to your career was wrong, but that did not mean that you had to quit. That's what this conversation is supposed to address."

"Supposed to?" Phoebe scoffed. "You can't control everything around you. I'll take this conversation where I want to take it. And I want to take it to the part where we say goodbye and then part ways for good."

David sighed. "I already have my transfer papers signed and am ready to move on to a new town to help other witches. My tenancy at my apartment is up in two days time. Then I'll be out of your life for good. I knew I was leaving and that's why I thought I'd let you know the full truth before I left town. I thought I owed you the truth. So could you please hear me out one last time?"

"Fine," Phoebe said.

"Thank you," said David. "Magical creatures and magical innocents needed to have a way to find the Charmed Ones back in the day. They're all far too scared of Piper to go to her club asking for help. Back then, not enough people knew about Paige being the new Charmed One. That's why I had to provide a way for them to find you, Phoebe."

Phoebe shook her head slowly. "So let me get this straight: Back in two-thousand-and-two, you came to San Francisco. You saw that I was at the beginning of my career as an advice columnist –"

"I think you'd been there for several months by then," David intervened. "It was just after your stint as the Source's Queen."

Phoebe stiffened in her seat a little at that memory, but then continued. "And you saw that I was doing fairly okay, but because you wanted magical creatures –"

"And innocents that wouldn't be able to find you any other way," David added.

"Yes, because you wanted them to know where to find the Charmed Ones," Phoebe finished. "The way that you decided to do that was to cast a charm on my colleagues and my boss so as they would be able to build up my name as an advice columnist. Does that not sound wrong to you? That was over three years ago! Yet only now do you decide that you should come clean to me about it! And not that it's wrong and maybe you should undo it or should never have done it in the first place!"

"Do you know how getting your name out there in the real non-magical world helped let so many innocents find you and your sisters? Attempting that with Piper's club or Paige's social work would never have had the same effect," David said.

"Now we go from trying to get people finding me at my work place to just having my name out in the world?" Phoebe said. "Which is it?"

David shrugged guiltily. "More of the latter." He gulped before becoming defensive: "And I didn't cast a charm on your colleagues. I just cast a charm on your writing so that whoever read it would be magically mesmerised by it. That's why you suddenly found yourself being interviewed by celebrity magazines and with a billboard and everything else that ensued."

Phoebe glared. "And that is still wrong. All that I've worked towards over the years has been for nothing because none of it was ever real. None of the feedback, none of the advice I tried giving to people. None of it. Not one word."

"You got the job all on your own. As I said, I didn't do anything until after you'd been there for a while," David reiterated.

"That doesn't help one little bit, considering that still leaves the majority of my career being a complete and utter lie," Phoebe pointed out.

"Yes, it was wrong, but –" he continued, but stopped.

For the first time since receiving their coffees, Phoebe had taken hold of her cup and the moment she touched it, she gasped:

There was a flash. An unseen figure was sitting at a booth, watching as David and an annoyed looking Phoebe entered the diner. There was another flash. Phoebe and David sat down at their booth as the unseen figure continued to watch them. After another flash, the unseen figure's hand came into view. On the back of their hand was a birthmark the shape of a phoenix.

The moment Phoebe came out of her premonition, she began to cautiously scan the diner with her eyes.

"Demon?" David asked, having realised that she had just had a premonition.

"If you classify them as that," she whispered. "We're being watched."

"By who?" he asked.

"I can't say it here. We can't let them know we're onto them," Phoebe said.

"If there is a magical being after one of us, we don't want anything to go down here," David said.

Phoebe agreed. "Not with so many mortals around. We should go back to the manor. We don't know whether they are watching me or you. If they are after you, I can't just leave you to fight them by yourself."

"I can manage a demon," David said.

"I never said it was just a demon," Phoebe pointed out. "However much I dislike you at the moment, as a Charmed One, I can't let you fight something this dangerous by yourself if they're after you." Then she added, "Also as a Charmed One, it's more likely that they're after me. You're only coming with just in case they are after you."

David nodded. "Okay. I guess I'll ask for the bill."

...

Piper walked into P3 and slumped Paige's plastic-wrapped freshly dry cleaned outfit on the bar. She smiled over at Leo who was standing on the stage, lengthening a mike stand.

"Hey. Is the club in new hands yet?" Leo asked, jumping down from the stage to greet his wife properly.

"Not yet," Piper said and before she had time to explain, Rob and the soon-to-be new owner entered the club. "Hi Rob. Stephanie."

"Hi!" said Stephanie, walking straight over to Piper and shaking her hand energetically. "I am so sorry about earlier! I left my house early, but my car broke down, and then I had to wait for the road recovery service to get there!"

"It's okay," said Piper. "It seems more fitting to sign the papers here."

Stephanie smiled. "It does, doesn't it?"

Piper, Stephanie and Rob went over to a table and Rob brought out the legal documents. Leo followed them and stood behind where Piper was sat.

"So once you've both signed these documents, Stephanie will have legal ownership of this building commencing from next Wednesday," Rob stated.

"That gives me time to clear the place up after this weekend's Halloween events," Piper said.

Stephanie nodded. "It all seems fine with me." She pulled out a pen and signed her name on the paperwork and then pushed it towards Piper. "Would you like to meet here on Tuesday to hand over the keys?"

Piper took the document and signed on the line. "That's probably the best option," she said. "It's been nice doing business with you."

The two women and Rob stood up from their seats and began to walk towards the stairs.

"So what are your plans for the club?" Piper asked.

"I'm definitely keeping your current staff on, but I'll probably close this place for a few weeks to refurbish it first," Stephanie said. "It will be open again before Thanksgiving. I don't want to lose out on too much business over busy holiday periods –" Stephanie's phone began to beep. She took a look at the phone's display and said: "Oops. Sorry, that's my alarm. It's reminding me of an appointment I have with the insurance company in half an hour. I'm so sorry, but I can't miss this meeting."

"That's okay. I remember how much I had to sort out when I first got this place," said Piper. "I'll see you Tuesday."

"Thank you! Bye!" Stephanie said, running up the stairs and leaving.

That left Piper, Leo and Rob in P3. Rob shook Leo's hand.

"I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting," Rob said. "I'm Rob."

"Leo, Piper's husband," Leo introduced himself.

Rob smiled. "Piper told me all about you earlier this morning."

"Really?" Leo said, smirking.

Before the conversation could continue, a male figure shimmered in behind Rob and hit him in the back of his head, knocking him unconscious before Piper or Leo had the chance to react.

Piper flicked her wrists at the figure. He exploded into countless buzzing fragments.

"Leo, get Rob out of here," Piper said, her eyes trained on the swarming fragments.

Leo quickly bent down, hoisted the unconscious Rob onto his back, and began to make his way towards the stairs.

The swarm reconstituted into the figure between Leo and the stairs. Leo let Rob fall back onto the floor as he braced himself for the figure's attack. The figure threw Leo across the room, knocking him unconscious as his head collided with a table.

"Leo!" Piper cried out in distress.

…

[Astral Vision]

"Ouch," Paige said, rubbing her forehead.

Bob, her witch charge, looked up from stirring a potion on his kitchen stove. "Everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah… No, actually," Paige admitted. "I think a friend just got hurt."

"Another charge?" Bob asked.

Paige looked uncomfortable at the use of the word. "Sort of, I guess. You're fine if I go, aren't you?"

"Yeah, this vanquishing potion is almost done," Bob said. "Thanks for your help. I never could have made this potion without you."

"No problem," said Paige.

Just then, an energy ball came smashing through the window, knocking the potion pot off the floor. Paige and Bob both dove behind the counter for cover and peered towards the window to see if there were any more energy balls coming. There was not.

"The demon you needed that potion to vanquish doesn't have the power to throw energy balls," Paige said.

Bob shook his head. "No, he doesn't. Do you think he's got friends that do?"

Paige stood up from behind the counter, wondering why the demon had not attacked again yet. At that precise moment, a female figure shimmered in, pointing an athame directly at Paige's throat.

"I'm faster than you are, so there's no point orbing," the woman threatened.

Paige's eyes widened, but she did not move an inch. Her eyes travelled from the woman's athame, along to her hand, down to her wrist and along onto her arm, and that is when Paige saw it.

"You're a Phoenix," Paige whispered, recognising the identifying birthmark on her attacker's arm.

"Yes, I am," said the Phoenix. "And you, you're dead."

The Phoenix and her athame were suddenly pushed backwards, away from Paige, by a sudden force field. Paige put her hand forward, touching the force field. Paige looked down to notice the crystals that surrounded her and Bob.

"You got those crystals around us fast," Paige said.

"That's the great thing about telekinesis," Bob said, relieved that the Phoenix could not currently penetrate the force field provided by the crystal cage.

The Phoenix circled the cage and its inhabitants. "You two can't stay in there forever," she said. "And I can be very patient."

...

Phoebe and David walked into the foyer of Halliwell manor.

"Now that we're in the manor, can you tell me what was watching us?" David asked.

"A Phoenix," Phoebe said. "They're more likely to attack us here now that we're alone."

David's eyes widened. "A Phoenix? As in the assassin witches? Why did we go here? To an empty house? There's no way the two of us could face a Phoenix. You're going to need your sisters. The Power of Three."

"I couldn't go to P3. Piper has mortals there. Few enough that a Phoenix wouldn't mind attacking us there. And Paige, she could be anywhere right now," Phoebe explained. "Don't worry though. I'll phone my sisters and make them get here as fast as possible."

David nodded. "Where do you keep your potion supplies? I might go and whip up some potions that may at least slow the Phoenix down while we wait for your sisters to get here."

"In the kitchen. The potion cupboard is to your left when you enter," Phoebe said.

"Okay," said David and he walked off into the kitchen.

Phoebe went over to the foyer phone, but before she had the chance to dial, she heard a crash from the kitchen. Phoebe dropped the phone and ran towards the source of the noise.

Entering the kitchen, she found an unconscious – but definitely alive and breathing – David lying on the kitchen floor. His head was bleeding. No one else was present.

"Show yourself. I know you're a Phoenix and I know I'm your target. If I wasn't, you would have killed him already," Phoebe called out to the kitchen.

A male Phoenix shimmered in directly behind Phoebe, holding an athame to the back of her neck.

"Good deduction," he said.

Phoebe's eyes widened. She rammed her elbow into his chest, ducking as she did so to avoid his athame plunging into the back of her neck. Turning around to face the assassin, Phoebe prepared her fighting stance. The athame disappeared from the Phoenix's hand as he also got into a fighting stance, more amused by the challenge than angered by Phoebe's defensive move.

The assassin and the Charmed One began to fight with hand to hand combat. Phoebe was mostly fighting defensively as the Phoenix continued to fight on the offensive.

...

The female Phoenix stared pitifully at Paige and her charge who were still within the protection of their crystal cage.

"How is it that a mighty Charmed One is spineless enough to hide from a challenge?" the Phoenix said nastily.

Paige glared. "I'm not spineless. If I remove just one crystal, I'd be putting my charge in harm's way."

The female Phoenix rolled her eyes. "Really? You're going to make the 'protecting the innocent' excuse. If that's the case, you'll be happy to know, I'm not after your charge. I won't hurt him as long as he doesn't get in my way."

"I'm your target?" Paige asked.

"Yes," the Phoenix confirmed.

Paige looked from her charge to the Phoenix. "I have your word that he'll be safe."

"Yes," the Phoenix said. "You have my word."

"Paige, don't do it," Bob warned. "She's an assassin. She'll kill you."

"She's right, though. We can't stay in here forever," Paige said. "And it's my turn to make a move – Crystal!"

In response to her command, one of the crystals disappeared in a blur of blue orbs. As soon as the crystal circle was broken, Paige began to orb out, but not before the Phoenix rushed toward her. The two women disappeared into the swirling blue and white orbs, leaving Bob alone in his house, wide eyed at what he had just witnessed and concerned for his whitelighter's safety.

...

Phoebe continued to block each hit that the male Phoenix threw her way. She was quickly reaching the point of exhaustion. This was the hardest hand-to-hand fight she had ever fought.

Phoebe was too slow to block a punch and found herself being thrown out of the kitchen, landing on her back on the floor in the foyer. The Phoenix slowly walked towards her, conjuring his athame back into his hand.

His attention was diverted as a haze of blue orbs appeared. The orbs smashed into the lamp on the foyer table. Paige and the female Phoenix rolled out of the orbs onto the floor, grazed by the contact they had both made with the lamp. Paige was struggling, attempting to kick the female Phoenix off of her.

Phoebe used this distraction to send a kick flying at the male Phoenix, knocking the athame from his hand. The athame slid across the floor.

Phoebe turned to see where the athame had gone – it had slid across the floor to just beside Paige who continued to struggle with the other Phoenix.

"Paige!" Phoebe called.

"Phoebe, help!" Paige said through her struggles.

"Hey, get off my sister!" Phoebe yelled, marching towards the female Phoenix.

The female Phoenix looked up and, on noticing Phoebe, she shimmered away from Paige over to the male Phoenix.

"Two Charmed Ones," the female Phoenix said to her male colleague. "Which means they're not far from rejoining with the third."

The male Phoenix seemed to follow her train of thought. "We should go," he said before the two of them shimmered out.

Paige picked up the athame as Phoebe helped her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Phoebe asked.

Paige wiped some blood from her cheek. "I've been better," she said, shrugging. "We should get to Piper. If there were Phoenixes after us, then –"

"Orb. Now," Phoebe said, not waiting for her sister to finish.

...

Piper made continued attempts to blow up the Phoenix. Each time she did so, he reconstituted. Piper did not want to give him the chance to make an attack. Not after what she had seen of the Phoenix's abilities last time she, her sisters and her future son had faced them.

As the Phoenix reconstituted for the umpteenth time, Piper blew him up again. This time his swarm did not reconstitute straight away. Instead it went flying into the office area.

Piper was deciding whether or not to follow when Paige orbed in with Phoebe.

"You're just in time," Piper proclaimed. "There's a Phoenix here and –" Piper stopped when she saw the exhausted and wounded state of her two younger sisters. "And I guess I'm not the only one that's had a visit from these delightful assassins."

Phoebe nodded. "It looks like the Phoenix clan have us on their hit list."

"Well, if we can get the one that's here to talk, we can find out why they're after us," Piper began, but Paige shook her head.

"Your assassin is probably long gone. The moment my assassin realised I'd orbed to Phoebe in the manor, she decided to leave with Phoebe's Phoenix," Paige explained.

"Why would they do that?" Piper asked.

"They knew our next move would be to find you," Phoebe said. "Phoenix witches are smart. They know that separately we cannot stop them, but together, with the Power of Three on our side, we can."

Piper nodded.

Paige looked over at Leo who lay unconscious amongst the debris of a table. "Is Leo alright?"

"I hope so," Piper said. "Did you –?"

Paige nodded before Piper could finish asking her question.

Phoebe looked from Piper to Paige. "You felt it when Leo got hurt?" Phoebe asked.

Paige nodded. "Ever since I got my powers back, I've been able to sense his whereabouts and feel if he's been hurt… I may have inadvertently accepted the Elders' request to guide him, but I never wanted them to officially make him a charge of mine. It's… weird."

"I think we have a more pressing matter to discuss right now," Piper said, bringing the sisters back to the issue at hand. "How are we going to stop the Phoenixes?"

"I don't know. We need to check the Book. Remind ourselves of what we found out about Phoenixes last time," Phoebe said.

"And we should stick together," Paige added. "As long as we remain together, they won't attack us."

Piper shook her head, her eyes wandering over to Rob who lay unconscious by the stairs. "I need to stay here and call for an ambulance. It would look suspicious if people knew you two showed up before I called for medical help."

"That makes sense, but…" Phoebe hesitated.

"Look, I'll be fine," Piper said. "A Phoenix wouldn't dare attack here knowing that more mortals are on their way. And they won't attack you two while you're together, because they know that you're just one orb away from the three of us reuniting."

Phoebe and Paige looked reluctant, but agreed.

"The moment the ambulance crew shows up, Phoebe and I are coming back for you," Paige insisted.

Piper nodded. "Fine." She picked up the phone. "I'll see you in a bit."

Paige orbed out with Phoebe.

As she dialled 911 on the phone and waited for an operator to pick up, Piper wandered over to Leo and put her palm to his cheek.

"Leo? Leo?" she said softly.

Leo opened his eyes warily and smiled tenderly when he saw Piper.

"Hi," he said, trying to sit himself up.

"Hi," Piper said. Just then, an operator responded to her call on the other end of the line, so Piper said into the phone: "I need an ambulance to come to P3 as soon as possible…"

...

In the attic, Paige was quickly flipping through the Book of Shadows, looking for the Phoenix entry. Phoebe, meanwhile, was digging through an old chest full of ritual items.

"What are you looking for?" Paige asked.

"Something that saved my life once that we can use to keep us safe," Phoebe said.

Paige came to a stop at the Phoenix entry in the Book. "Elite, powerful witches… Rose from ashes in Salem… they're vengeful… and will kill anyone they're hired to kill…" she paraphrased.

"Is that all it says?" Phoebe asked, continuing her search through the chest. "No ways to vanquish them?"

"Of course it wouldn't say that," Paige said. "Despite the fact that they're evil, they are people too. We can't vanquish them."

Phoebe looked away from the chest to look straight at her sister. "I don't see any other way that we could get out of this alive. They're assassins and since we've done nothing to make them seek vengeance against us, someone must have hired them to kill us. They won't stop until we're dead. So it's either a case of kill or be killed."

"Phoebe! I can't believe you're suggesting this!" Paige said.

Phoebe smiled. "I'm glad you said that."

"Huh?"

Phoebe stood up from the chest. "It was a test. I had to check that I had at least one sister agreeing with me that we're best off being on the defensive."

"Oh okay… You think Piper might have a slightly different plan in mind?" Paige said. Not wanting to hear the answer, Paige quickly changed the path of their conversation: "The only problem is I don't know how we are going to defend ourselves. We barely got away from them earlier and that wasn't without injuries."

Phoebe had made her way over to Paige and the Book. She dropped a small object onto the Book for Paige to see.

"This is how we will protect ourselves until we think of a way to stop them from coming after us," Phoebe said.

The object was a small amulet. The thin chain and the pendant were both gold. The pendant was a rectangular shape with loose dangling golden threads beneath it. On the upper half of the pendant was a small dark red circle.

"This is a protection amulet," Phoebe explained. "It protects the wearer and those with the wearer against witchcraft."

David walked into the attic, holding his hand against the back of his head. "How long was I out for?" he asked, a little bleary eyed.

"Oh my… I'd forgotten you were downstairs," Phoebe said apologetically. "I got so wrapped up in all the Phoenix stuff that…"

"It's okay," David said. "I guess they weren't after me after all."

"No, they weren't," Phoebe said. "You should go home. You and me have hashed our issues out. There's no reason for you to stay now. It's too dangerous here."

"I can't leave you and your sisters to face Phoenix witches by yourselves," David said.

"You said it yourself earlier, David," Phoebe said. "If anyone can stop them, it's the Power of Three. Now go home and get some rest. You could have concussion."

David sighed. "Fine, I will, but if I don't hear from you by tomorrow morning, I'm coming straight back here."

Phoebe nodded. "Fine."

"Okay," David said, about to turn to leave the attic. "We're good, right? About what I did. You understand why I did it. And you know that I've undone the enchantment."

Phoebe sighed. "We're good, but I'm still not happy about what you did. Now go."

As David left the attic, Phoebe turned back to Paige.

"Do I get to know what happened between you and David yet?" Paige asked, but noticing Phoebe's expression, she added, "Right, we've got something more urgent to focus on. So this amulet will protect us against witches' magic. So that includes spells and charms, but what about energy balls? Those are more of a demonic power than a witch's power."

"The Phoenixes are witches, so since it's their power, it should all still work the same," Phoebe said. "The only thing that this can't protect us from is the threat of athames and the Phoenixes' agility."

Paige nodded. "Okay, but hopefully having that to keep us safe will buy us some time. How does it work?"

"One of us wears it. The other two need to be close by," Phoebe said. "Or if two are together, the one that is alone can wear it to protect themselves until the other two arrive."

"Okay," Paige said. She looked at her watch. "I think we've given Piper enough time. Let's get back to P3."

Phoebe shook her head. "You go. I'll be here, trying to come up with a plan."

Paige was about to argue, but Phoebe interrupted her.

"I've got the amulet with me and you won't be gone for too long," Phoebe said. "I'll be fine. Now go and get Piper."

As Paige orbed out, Phoebe put on the amulet. The circle on it glowed red as it made contact with her.

"I never thought I'd have to wear this again," she mumbled to herself.

...

At P3, Rob was being placed onto a stretcher by a couple of paramedics. Leo sat at a table, refusing treatment from the paramedics.

"I'm fine, honestly," Leo was saying to the paramedic who was trying to clean a cut on his forehead. "It's just a little graze."

Piper who had just finished giving a statement about what had happened to an officer, walked over to Leo.

"Honey, go with them. Get yourself checked out at the hospital," Piper said. "You're not immortal. You can't heal yourself." Ignoring the funny look the paramedic gave her, Piper added, "Could you give me a moment with my husband?"

The paramedic nodded and walked off.

"Piper, you have Phoenixes after you," Leo said. "I can't just leave you."

"Leo, you have to," Piper argued. "Phoebe, Paige and I will figure something out. If you get out of hospital early, go straight to my Dad's. The boys are there, and you'll be safe there. The Phoenixes are only after us."

"But…" Leo tried to argue.

"No," Piper said sternly. "You will go there and wait there until I show up once all of this is over. I am not bringing you, Dad, or the boys into the crossfire of this fight. It's too dangerous."

The paramedic reapproached Leo and Piper. Leo stood up with some support from the paramedic. Piper went over to Rob who was now on the stretcher which was being lifted by some paramedics.

"Did you see the attacker?" Rob asked her.

Piper shook her head sheepishly.

"How is it possible that you didn't see them?" Rob asked.

"I have no idea," Piper replied. "I guess he was too fast and got out before I saw him."

"And you're sure this place isn't still a big crime spot like when you first bought it?" Rob asked.

"I'm sure," Piper said. "This was a rare occurrence. And Stephanie has already signed the contract. You can't deny her the loan now."

"I won't, but I think I'll be looking into the crime in this area again," said Rob.

"Excuse me," one of the paramedics said as they began to follow Leo and the other paramedic up the stairs with Rob on the stretcher.

Paige walked down the stairs, passing Rob on the stretcher on her way down.

"Hi there," Rob said sarcastically as Paige paused to look at him.

The two sisters waited to hear the door of P3 close behind the paramedics before talking.

"Are you ready to go?" Paige asked.

"Yeah," said Piper. "We've got a vanquish to deal with."

…

[Astral Vision]

Phoebe was sat in the attic with a map open on the table in front of her. She was dangling a crystal over the map.

Piper and Paige walked into the attic.

"Hi," said Piper. "Are you scrying for them?"

Phoebe nodded. "I'm hoping that some of the blood left in the foyer was from one of them. I thought I'd try to find out their location."

"Even if we do find them, we don't have a plan of attack yet," said Piper.

"Yes, but knowing their location is a good start to defending ourselves," Phoebe said.

"And the best way to defend ourselves is to attack them first," Piper said.

"No, it's not," Paige said, taking Phoebe's side. "We need to have a plan first. A plan of how to stop them."

"And what plan would that be?" Piper asked. "If we wait, the moment one of us is unprotected, a Phoenix will attack that sister. I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen."

"We agree, but attacking isn't our best option," said Phoebe. "We need to find out who sent them after us."

"We need to know more about them too," Paige added. "I don't know about you, but despite the fact that we've faced a future Phoenix and her mother, we know hardly anything about them."

"Her mother…" Piper repeated. "Phoebe stop scrying for those particular Phoenixes. We need to find out where Bianca's mother lives now. I wouldn't put it past her if she moved after the last time we tracked her down."

…

Lynn was walking out of a building with her seven year old little girl in tow.

"Bianca, you can't keep picking fights with kids at school," Lynn was telling her. "I can't keep being called in because you've been sent home early for such behaviour."

They walked out onto a busy public street hand-in-hand.

"But Mummy, a mean nasty boy said my birthmark made me look ugly," Bianca moaned.

"That's no reason to start a fight," Lynn said. "Next time, just go and tell the teacher, okay?"

"But that's not what Uncle Mike said to do if someone was mean to me," Bianca whinged.

"No more 'but's, Bianca," Lynn said. "And don't ever take advice from your uncle again. He and the rest of our family are no longer a part of our lives. They were a bad influence. One that I don't want you to be affected by, okay?"

"But why?" Bianca whined.

"Was that another 'but', Bianca?" Lynn asked.

Bianca was about to make another attempt to moan again when her mother stopped in the middle of the street, staring straight ahead. Bianca looked forward to see what her mother was staring at. Three women were walking towards them: the Charmed Ones.

"Bianca, go back to your school now," Lynn said.

"But they sent me home for being bad," Bianca said.

"I know. Go and wait in the reception area of your school. I'll be back for you in a few minutes, okay?" Lynn explained, not taking her eyes off the three women.

Bianca nodded and ran off.

Lynn stood her ground as Piper, Phoebe and Paige approached her.

"What are you doing here?" Lynn asked as the sisters stopped in front of her.

"It's a public street," Phoebe said. "There's nothing wrong with us walking down it."

"This isn't coincidence. You came here looking for me," Lynn said. "State your business."

"Don't act like you don't know what we've come to discuss with you," Piper said.

"I clearly have no idea," Lynn said. "I've done nothing that requires the attention of the Charmed Ones."

Paige rolled her eyes. "You may personally not have, but your work buddies have."

"I wouldn't know," Lynn said, not breaking her resolve.

"Someone sets a bounty on the Charmed Ones, sending Phoenix witches after us, yet you don't know?" Piper said. "Why don't I believe that?"

"Maybe because you don't know one thing about my life," Lynn said.

"We don't need to know anything other than that you are a Phoenix witch," Phoebe said.

"I may be a Phoenix witch by birth right, but that doesn't mean I still am one," Lynn said.

Piper let out a disbelieving laugh. "Oh what? Are we supposed to believe that within the past two years you've decided to change your entire lifestyle? Yeah, right."

Lynn let out a very uncharacteristic sigh, dropping her guardedness very slightly. "Meeting an adult version of your daughter and seeing what the Phoenix lifestyle has done to her can change a mother's view on her current lifestyle."

Piper frowned, also losing a bit of her suspicion. "The future version of my son helped to change that future. If what you say is true, then keeping yourself and Bianca away from the Phoenix lifestyle can only help to make your personal future a better place."

"We only came here for information. To see what you could tell us about Phoenixes," Phoebe said. Any tone of bitterness towards Lynn had now left her words. "We need your help."

"How do we stop the Phoenix witches from coming after us?" Paige asked.

Lynn made no reply. She stood there very still, staring the three sisters.

"Please. I realise that despite keeping away from their influence, they're still family to you, and giving information to us may make you feel like you've betrayed them, but…" Paige trailed off.

Lynn still said nothing.

Piper decided to start with a new negotiation tactic. "I'm sure the Phoenix clan were not happy when you decided to leave them. I'm sure that you've managed to stay off their radar. And I'm also sure that when Bianca comes of age, they'll come looking for her to join them. It is her birth right and her choice after all. If you help us now, we'll promise to help you when that day comes."

"Why would you do this for me?" Lynn had finally broken her silence.

"Not for you. For your daughter," Piper said.

"Why?" Lynn repeated.

"Despite betrayals in that now non-existent future, my son trusted your daughter. They had more than that. Despite the fact that she betrayed him, I'm pretty sure she was the reason that he managed to come back here alive and save his brother and their future. I'm doing this for your daughter… and for my son," Piper said.

Lynn bit her lip, contemplating Piper's words. "Okay."

"You're going to help us?" Paige asked hopefully.

"You better be listening, because I'm only going to say this once," Lynn said. "Individuals Phoenixes are offered bounties to target individuals. Therefore, there's probably only five at most Phoenix witches that you have to worry about coming after you. Phoenix witches don't tend to work in bigger groups than that, since splitting a bounty between multiple assassins isn't simple."

"What does a bounty consist of?" Phoebe interjected.

"Could be powers, weapons or even souls," Lynn answered. "You've got to find a way to stop the group of Phoenix witches that have been sent after you. If I were you, I'd go for the kill, but then again, the three of you could probably only manage that with a Power of Three spell. A Phoenix would never let you get close enough to them with a potion or an athame."

"Killing isn't an option," Paige said sternly.

Lynn nodded slowly. "Then tell me, what option does that leave you with? This small group of Phoenixes won't stop until they get their bounty and while they're alive, they have the power they need to get what they want."

"Power…" Phoebe echoed.

"What about power?" Piper asked her sister.

"Don't you see?" Phoebe asked. "That's how we stop them."

"I don't follow you, Pheebs," Piper said.

"We take away their powers," Phoebe expanded.

"A power-stripping potion," Paige realised.

Phoebe shook her head. "We'd never managed to successfully throw one of those at a Phoenix. They'd shimmer away too fast."

"So, a power-stripping spell," Piper said.

"One cast by the Power of Three," Phoebe finished.

"I don't think you need me anymore," Lynn said, turning to walk away.

Piper looked at her. "Thank you," she said.

"I'll be in touch when it's time for you to return the favour," Lynn said nonchalantly as she walked away, back towards her daughter's school.

…

The three sisters entered the foyer through the front doors of the manor.

"Have you managed to come up with that spell yet?" Piper asked, taking off her jacket.

Phoebe – who was holding a notepad in her hands – gave Piper a stressed look. "I need to get the wording just right and I've only had the length of the car ride back to here so far to come up with a spell."

"How much more time do you think you'll need?" Piper asked.

"I don't know, but I could do with some peace and quiet. I'm going to my room," Phoebe said, making her way up the stairs.

Piper turned to look at Paige who looked deep in thought.

"Are you okay?" Piper asked.

"Yeah… I'm just thinking," Paige said. "The Phoenix assassins that are after us are smart. They won't attack whilst the three of us are within the same vicinity. They know to keep away from the Power of Three. So –"

"How are we going to get them all in the same room as the three of us so as we can strip their powers with a Power of Three spell?" Piper finished.

"Exactly," Paige agreed.

"We'll figure something out," Piper said. "It's our only option."

Paige looked a little relieved. "I'm glad that you consider that our only option."

"What do you mean?" Piper asked.

"Nothing," Paige said sheepishly.

"Spill," Piper said stubbornly.

"Phoebe and I were concerned that you'd considering vanquishing them an option," Paige said almost apologetically.

Piper's expression softened. "Why would you think that?"

Paige looked at her older sister warily. "Do you want me to be honest? And when I say honest, I do mean blunt."

"Yes," Piper said, tensing up. "Say it."

Paige hesitated before saying: "Sometimes you like to vanquish first and ask questions later."

"Is that what you think?" Piper asked, saddened by the comment.

"Yes…" Paige said. "Don't get me wrong, Piper. Your quick decisions and offensive reactions to demon attacks has constantly come to our rescue over all of these years, but…"

"Sometimes I can get a little ahead of myself," Piper realised. "Sometimes I attack before I even take note of what's going on around me."

"I'm sorry," Paige said.

"No… Don't be," Piper said. Returning to the matter at hand, she said, "So Lynn said it's probably a group of at most five Phoenixes after us. It's not normally much bigger than that."

"We've only seen three," Paige said. "One for each of us."

"If there were more than three in the group that are coming after us, more than one would have come after each of us while we were separated," Piper assumed.

"So we've got three Phoenix witches to find and disempower," Paige stated.

Piper nodded. "Then I guess while Phoebe sorts out the Power of Three spell, we should come up with a spell to summon our three Phoenixes here."

"Yeah. That's our only option since there's no way we're going to separate just to lure them out of hiding," Paige said just as the grandfather clock began to strike three times. Paige's eyes widened. "It's three o'clock? Already?"

"Yeah," Piper said. "Why?"

"My interview's in forty-five minutes!" Paige said. She let out a sigh of defeat. "I can't exactly go when there are assassins after us. Besides I wouldn't make the best first impressions showing up looking like I've been in a fight," she said, referring to the injuries she'd obtained from her earlier fight with the Phoenix. Paige picked up the phone. "I guess I should call them now to cancel it."

Piper nodded. "I'm going to see how Phoebe's doing. That's where you'll find us after you've finished cancelling."

Paige nodded as Piper walked up the stairs.

…

Phoebe was sitting on her bed, tapping a pen against the notepad as she continued to brainstorm the spell's wording.

There was a gentle knock on the door.

"Come in," said Phoebe.

Piper opened the door and sat down on the edge of Phoebe's bed.

"How are you doing?" Piper asked softly.

"Just two more lines and one last couplet to come up with," Phoebe replied.

"That's good, but that's not what I was asking," said Piper.

Phoebe looked over at Piper. "Is this about my job?"

"It doesn't have to be. I fully support your decision to quit. I just want to know what that inspector did," Piper said.

Phoebe sighed heavily. "I guess he was doing what he thought was the best way to let innocents find the Charmed Ones."

Piper raised an eyebrow. "What does that have to do with you being an advice columnist?"

Phoebe frowned. "Nothing. What it affected was my sudden fame and success."

"That was down to magic?" Piper asked, overwhelmed.

"Yes," Phoebe said regretfully. "It explains why my career skyrocketed out of nowhere."

"So I gather you quit when you found out," Piper said.

Phoebe nodded. "I can't bear to continue a career that has been a sham all these years."

"Aaww, Pheebs, I'm so sorry," Piper said. "Do you want me to go and kick David's butt for doing this to you?"

Phoebe let out a small chuckle. "An offer to beat up the jerk that upset me? Wasn't that always Prue's role when we were little?"

Piper smiled.

"I think I've got it," Phoebe suddenly said and began to scribble some words onto the notepad.

"You've finished the spell?" Piper asked.

Phoebe smiled. "The words just came to me."

Piper nodded. "Okay. So I guess our next problem is how we're going to get them all into the same room… How can we get those three Phoenixes to attack the three of us at once?"

Phoebe shook her head. "I don't know. I have a feeling they won't let us summon them here."

"Nope," Piper said. "I guess the only way to get them out into the open is for one of us to go out into the open."

"Even then, the moment the other two of us show up, the Phoenixes will leave," Phoebe countered.

Piper sighed, shaking her head. "This is impossible, but the sooner we sort this out, the sooner we can get back to our lives and I can see my family again."

"How's Leo?" Phoebe asked.

"I made him go and get looked at in the hospital," Piper said. "The Phoenix knocked both him and Rob unconscious." Piper suddenly looked reminiscent. "It's not the first time that Rob's been knocked unconscious in P3."

Phoebe smiled. "So that's twice today that he's had a déjà vu moment whilst being back around the Halliwell family."

"Yeah…" said Piper. "That's weird. This morning it seemed a coincidence, but two different bouts of déjà vu in one day concerning the same person? That can't be a coincidence."

"Er, Piper, what are you trying to suggest?" Phoebe asked.

"As in, in our lives, everything happens for a reason," Piper said.

Phoebe looked puzzled. "So you're saying that it's Rob's fate to always get attacked by a demon at P3?"

"Of course not. What I'm saying is that fate's trying to tell us something… What else happened the day that we met Rob?" Piper said.

Phoebe looked at Piper blankly. "You expect me to remember the events of a day that took place over five years ago? Seriously? Short of having a vision of the past, it's not like I can watch the events of that entire day on rerun."

"Rob got knocked out at P3 that day… Why did he get knocked out…" Piper brainstormed. "Jeremy…"

"Jeremy? Didn't we vanquish him when we first became witches?" Phoebe continued. "Oh… but then he came back… Was that the same day as the bank loan stuff with Rob?"

Piper nodded, trying to remember what had happened more clearly. "I was in P3 with Rob… Jeremy appeared… Rob got knocked out…"

"You must have tried to freeze Jeremy," Phoebe said.

"Yes, I think I did, but… I don't think it worked," Piper said. She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on the memory. "What happened next?"

"You phoned us… Me and Prue…" Phoebe remembered. "You put us on speaker and…"

Piper opened her eyes, realising the answer to their problems.

"We don't all have to be present in the room with the Phoenixes to cast the spell," Piper realised.

Paige entered Phoebe's bedroom at this point.

"Hey," Paige said. She placed an athame on Phoebe's bed. "I remembered that I'd gotten this from the fight with the Phoenixes earlier. Maybe we could use it for a summoning spell or something."

"Did you cancel your interview?" Piper asked.

Paige shook her head. "I kept trying to phone them, but the line's busy. I'll try again in a few minutes."

Phoebe reached over to take a closer look at the athame. As she picked it up, she was thrown into a premonition:

There was an empty reception area of an office. A clock on the wall suggested the time was 3.52. Dressed in a smart outfit, Paige entered the office area, her eyes scanning the room anxiously. The three Phoenixes shimmered in, surrounding Paige.

"Pheebs?" Piper asked as Phoebe seemed to become aware of her surroundings again.

"Premonition?" Paige asked.

Phoebe nodded, fiddling with the athame in her hands as she turned to Paige.

"Paige, how long until your interview starts?" Phoebe asked.

Paige looked at her watch. "Twenty minutes, but it doesn't matter because I can't go."

"Yes you can and you will," Phoebe said.

Paige furrowed her brow. "You just had a premonition from that athame… Am I supposed to expect Phoenix witches to show up at my interview?"

"Paige, I can't give you the details," Phoebe said. "Just go and get ready for your interview now. All I ask is that you take crystals with you and phone us when you are there."

Paige looked confused. "I don't like being left in the dark like this."

Phoebe sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just that this might be our only chance and if you look too prepared for them to show up, they may know we have a plan up our sleeves and get out of there before we put our plan into action."

"I don't even know what this plan is, but okay, I trust you," Paige said. She turned to leave the room. "I guess I'll go and get ready then. Just to clarify though, the actual interview's never going to happen, is it?"

Phoebe shook her head apologetically. "I doubt it."

Paige shrugged. "It's not like it will be my last interview anyway. I have a few more lined up."

"Make sure to head back in here before you leave. Phoebe's going to write you a copy of the spell we're going to use," Piper said.

"Oh, so I do get to know something about this plan then," Paige said.

Paige was about to leave again, when Phoebe stopped her.

"Wait, Paige," Phoebe said. She took the protection amulet off and handed it to her younger sister. "You're going to need this."

Paige nodded and left the room to go and get changed.

…

[Astral Vision]

The office from Phoebe's premonition was occupied by one lone receptionist, sitting at a desk. A phone was continuously ringing, and the receptionist was constantly finding himself saying, "One moment please. Please hold."

He was not prepared for what happened next.

A Phoenix shimmered in behind him and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him out. The Phoenix moved the receptionist's unconscious body out of sight beneath the desk. The phone continued to ring, so the Phoenix cut the phone line to leave the room in complete silence.

The Phoenix then shimmered out.

The clock read 3.52 as Paige walked into the office. She scanned the room anxiously, not knowing what to expect. The office was empty and quiet.

"Hello? Anyone here?" said Paige.

As if in response to her question, the three Phoenix witches shimmered in, surrounding her.

"Uh, hi," Paige said to them.

"We don't need to tell you that there's no point orbing, right?" said one of the male Phoenixes.

"It's not hard to forget a threat that's constantly being repeated by you guys," Paige said, rolling her eyes. "Besides I have a little present for you too." Paige removed some crystals from her bag and shouted, "Crystals!"

The crystals orbed around the office, encasing herself and the three Phoenixes within a crystal cage.

"Is that it?" the female Phoenix said. "We may not be able to get out, but this doesn't protect you from us."

"You know what, I think I should call my sisters and ask for the next step in what to do," said Paige, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

One of the male Phoenixes laughed. "It's not like they'd get here in time. And even if they did, they could do nothing to help you from outside this crystal cage."

Paige ignored them and began to dial her phone.

The other male Phoenix threw an energy ball at Paige.

The pendant flashed red causing the energy ball to rebound off a very startled Paige. Her panic changed to relief as she smiled at the Phoenixes and continued to dial.

"Paige, is that you?" Phoebe said the moment Paige phoned. Paige had put it onto speaker so that the Phoenix witches could hear every word.

"Yeah, it's me and our good friends. They were kind enough to come and support me at my interview. I'd introduce them to you and Piper, but we haven't exchanged names yet," Paige said.

"I don't think we need to exchange names with them," Piper said through the phone. "All we need is to exchange some words. Now."

On that cue, Paige brought out a crumpled piece of paper that contained the spell and began to read in time with her sisters over the phone:

"Witches descended from Salem's ashes,

And witches of the Warren line amidst clashes.

We call upon the Power of Three to set apart our abilities,

We ask the spirits to remove your agility.

Demonic-based powers and witchcraft, we will also take away,

Leaving you powerless for the rest of your days."

Throughout the spellcasting, Paige had been dodging the Phoenixes attempts at trying to wrestle her to the ground to crush the phone. Now that the spell was complete, Paige shouted "Crystals!" taking their crystal cage confines apart.

With the cage no longer active, Paige orbed out of the Phoenix witches' grasps to the other side of the office.

The female Phoenix tried to form an energy ball, but nothing happened. She looked at her two colleagues.

"Can you shimmer?" she asked. "Can you do anything?"

The other two shook their head.

The three powerless Phoenixes turned to Paige, scowling at her.

"You took away our powers," one of them said.

"We had no other choice," Paige said emotionlessly. "Now, I think it's time you come with me."

"We're not going anywhere. You'll have to vanquish us here," the male Phoenix said.

"My sisters and I are not vanquishing you," Paige said. "We've got questions to ask you."

With those words in mind, Paige approached the three Phoenixes and orbed them all to the manor.

…

After a slight struggle with the three powerless Phoenixes (which was now no match to Piper's freezing power as it now worked on the now powerless ex-witches), the sisters had managed to get them sat down and tied to chairs in the attic.

"Why are we here?" one of the male Phoenixes asked. "We've already failed in our task. If you don't vanquish us, our higher ups will. And we're never going to receive our bounty from the client now."

"Your client? That's the person that hired you, right?" Phoebe asked.

The female Phoenix rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course. That's why you want to interrogate us. You want to know who sent us after you."

Piper nodded. "We do. And you are going to tell us."

"No, we're sworn to secrecy," said one of the Phoenixes.

"You're three Phoenix assassins that have lost your powers and failed an assignment," Piper said. "I'm pretty sure there's no point in caring about the rules anymore."

"She's right," said one of the males. "They'll never accept us back into the clan after this. They even said this was a mad assignment to accept, going after the Charmed Ones… We should have never accepted the bounty."

"Who offered the bounty? And what did they offer that was so enticing?" Paige asked.

The Phoenixes exchanged looks, contemplating whether or not to talk. It was the female Phoenix who decided to answer.

"We didn't ask for clarification on her identity," said the female Phoenix. "We don't know nor do we care who she was."

"She…" Paige pondered, exchanging a concerned glance with Piper and Phoebe.

"So what she offered must have been a really good incentive," Phoebe said. "What did she offer you?"

"A power, but not just any power," said one of the male Phoenixes. "The power of silence."

"Silence? That's a power?" Piper asked sceptically.

"Imagine a demon that you can't hear approaching you. Imagine a demon that envelopes you within the silence so as no one can hear you scream as it kills you," said the male Phoenix.

"It's a very rare power," said the other male Phoenix. "Though we couldn't use it for ourselves, it would sell at a very high price on the demonic market."

"What makes it so rare?" Paige asked. "Demons steal powers from each other all the time. Warlocks too."

"This one power could only be retrieved from a vanquished demon within the Wasteland," explained the Phoenix.

"So whoever your client is, she was powerful enough to get in and out of the Wasteland…" Phoebe said worryingly.

"Rope," Paige said, orbing the rope tying the Phoenixes to their chairs away.

"Paige!" Piper yelled, freezing the three powerless Phoenixes before they had the chance to move. "What are you doing?"

"They've told us all they know," Paige explained. "And if this client is the same woman that's been after us over the past few months so far, then we're in big trouble, because she must be powerful."

"Paige is right," Phoebe said. "We can't waste much more time interrogating these three. They don't know anything more about her."

Piper sighed and turned to the powerless Phoenixes, unfreezing them.

"You're free to walk out of the manor and start your newly powerless lives," Piper said. "However, are you sure there's nothing more you can tell us about your client? Did you see what she looked like?"

"No, we didn't," said the Phoenix. "We heard of the assignment from higher ups in our clan who were asking whether anyone would be willing to take it on. We never got to see the client, only our higher ups get to meet the clients. All we got to know about this client is that she's a she and what's she's offering as the bounty."

There was a brief silence in the attic as the sisters contemplated what they had been told. The three Phoenixes exchanged a look before simultaneously walking out of the attic.

…

Later that evening, P3 was brimming with people for the start of its weekend long Halloween event. Phoebe, Paige and Leo were sat at the bar.

Paige was looking awkwardly at Leo, Phoebe sitting between the two of them.

"So the doctor said I do have a concussion and I have to rest," Leo was saying. "It makes me miss the days when I was self-healing and didn't have to worry about getting hurt."

"Surely you don't miss feeling when your charges get hurt," Paige mumbled.

Leo looked concerned. "Is feeling when your charges are in pain affecting you?" he asked. "I always believed it helped me as a whitelighter, but some whitelighters do learn to numb that sense so as they know their charge is in trouble without the hindrance. I can teach you to numb that sense if you want."

"You could?" Paige asked. "That would be great."

Piper, having finished serving a customer, wandered over to her sisters and Leo.

"Hey," Piper said. "Sorry about the interruption. We're a little short staffed tonight so I might have to keep disappearing to do bar work."

"Piper, I can help out," Leo began, but Piper was already shaking her head.

"No you won't," Piper refused. "You're supposed to be resting."

"I can't rest. Especially knowing that someone powerful enough to get in and out of the Wasteland and take a power without absorbing it for their own use is after you," Leo said. "This is serious."

Phoebe frowned. "Yes, it is serious. This woman is dangerous and we don't know anything about her."

"If we could get the Elders on speaking terms with us again, would they be likely to know anything about demons strong enough to get in and out of the Wasteland?" Paige asked.

"No," Leo said. "They know next to nothing about the demonic afterlife."

"Then how can we find out more?" Phoebe asked.

"We did know a demon that escaped the Wasteland," Paige began.

"He's dead," Phoebe quickly put in.

"He may be dead, but he's reachable," Piper said. "I've told you what happened last year. I'm sure we could temporarily summon him from limbo so as we can get information about the Wasteland out of him."

Phoebe looked at Piper imploringly. "Please don't do this."

Piper frowned. "I'll try and find another option, but if we're going to find out more, he might be the person we have to turn to."

Phoebe sighed. "Fine, but please, let's see if we can find an alternative way first."

Piper nodded. "Of course, Pheebs."

"Hey… Uh, can I order a drink?"

The sisters and Leo looked up from their discussion to see a tentative David standing by the bar.

"Sure," Piper said, sending a bitter look in his direction. "What are you having?"

"Apparently sour grapes," he replied. "I guess Phoebe told you."

"I told them," Phoebe confirmed. "They're just as annoyed as I am, but there's nothing we can do to change the past. This might be the last time we see you, so I invited you here tonight so as we could have a proper goodbye."

David smiled. "Thanks for being willing to talk to me after what I did."

Phoebe stood up from her bar stool and turned to her sisters. "We're just going to go and find an empty table. Could you get David any drink on the house and then come join us at the table?"

Piper nodded and Phoebe left to find somewhere to sit with David.

"Well, I guess this evening has just turned into a farewell party," Piper said to Leo and Paige.

"It already was a farewell party," Paige said. "This is one of our last night's at P3 as it is."

"I just can't believe we've only got a few more days until we say goodbye to this place. No more loud music, no more bar work…" Leo said.

"Yeah, despite the many ups and downs at this club, it's been a good five and a bit years," Piper said as she began to pour out a drink.

"I'm going to miss this place," Paige said as she and Leo stood up and Piper came round to their side of the bar.

Piper nodded. "Me too."

Locating Phoebe and David at a table in the distance, Piper, Leo and Paige began to walk towards it.

"Anyone else realise that as of Tuesday, we'll be a household with no income now that you've sold P3, Phoebe's quit her job and I'm still unemployed?" Paige pointed out.

"Let's worry about that tomorrow," Leo said.

Piper concluded with: "Yeah, let's not ruin our evening by thinking about the demon that is after us or about how we're going to keep our bills paid. Leaving P3 behind is just the start of something new. Something good and I'm not going to let life ruin that."

[Chrisaholic]

Ah yes, the Phoenixes. There are coming good memories up again.

Great work and go on this way!