Post by adzpower on Aug 27, 2016 13:16:32 GMT -5
Charmed Reborn, Chapter One: “Unexpressed Fury”.
21st May, 2016
Titus was irritated. He had everything he wanted, he was The Source, he had all the power he could want, demons laid down their lives for him on a regular basis, they served him with everything they had.
It was because of course, that he provided them with such great leadership, he had united the underworld in all its glory, but still. Those witches.
Every single time, they got in his way, he was without a doubt the strongest Source there had ever been, with power unparalleled to any other evil being, yet still it wasn’t enough to stop them. He dug his fingers into his palms, they began to bleed. The thought of them made him insanely angry. Piper, Phoebe and Paige, he would curse those names for all eternity. But now he had crossed them, he had finally caused them great pain by taking one of their own, he had no idea what she was called, just that she was one of the Warren children, he had taken great joy in cutting her open as she screamed for her mother. He had no clue how old she was, 12 or 13 maybe, humans all looked the same to him. He stared down at his hands, red from so much blood, not his this time, no, all the good he had ripped apart, soaked in like a sponge, he craved more of it. He wouldn’t stop until every last Warren was dead and lying at his feet.
He had a plan, but it was complicated, thankfully he had been working on it for some time now, he had shown the underworld that not every member of that family was immortal. And now he would make it so none of it ever existed.
He raised his arms and bellowed, “Tempus I summon thee”.
The demon Tempus rose from the ground in front of Titus like sand coming together, forming a body.
He bowed down in respect, Tempus was strong, but his magic did not lie with the offensive, he stood no chance, he had to obey, they all had to obey.
“You called?” He said coldly.
“It has been 15 years since you last used your power to reverse time correct?” Titus inquired.
Tempus nodded, unsure of what was coming next.
“If I recall hearing correctly, you reversed time so that The Charmed Ones and their magic would never be exposed” he questioned.
“That is true my liege, it resulted in the death of one of the sisters” Tempus explained.
“Yes, but I want you to reverse time again, back to that event, stop the sisters from being exposed, and allow the sister who died to live”.
“But, my lord, that could bring untold consequences, without her dying it is possible the witches may be even more powerful” Tempus pleaded.
“They’re already too powerful!” Titus thundered, getting to his feet.
“But in this new world you may not ever even become The Source, that big of a change will surely affect us down here as well” Tempus said, backing away.
“That’s a chance I’m willing to take, now Tempus, listen to me, I want you to reverse time to May 17th, 2001, stop The Charmed Ones from discovering their new sister, stop the witch from dying, and more importantly, erase all those stinking off-spring, so that by the time I come to power, there won’t be enough of them to stop me”, Titus sat back down, too excited to remain calm, at last, his plan would take effect, and the witches would have no idea any of it had ever happened.
“Now!” he shouted.
Tempus nodded and raised his arms.
He let out a groan, this kind of reversal would take him centuries to recover from, but never the less, he obeyed his master, a bead of sweat rolled down his face, he looked up at the sky, he could see into the mortal world, lightning bolts struck the sky as the Earth began to turn back, the magnetism reverting to times gone past, as the process continued Titus faded away along with his laugh, his evil plan finally at its fruition, Tempus himself began to fade.
He gasped as he realised this reversal was changing his own timeline as well, he collapsed to the ground, weakened, aged, his withered hands began to turn to dust, before he could even let out a scream he had turned to ash, lost to the winds of time.
13th July, 2001
Phoebe Halliwell was a brave, courageous woman. She knew that, but it wasn’t until now that she realised just how brave she was, not that she thought about it often, it would be pretty egotistical of her to think that a lot.
But after spending 8 weeks in hell, with almost no contact from any kind of human being, she figured that maybe she could start calling herself brave.
She looked out onto The Source’s personal chambers. This is where she had been held captive for the last couple of months, trapped in a magical cage, “unbreakable” was the word that he had used now that she thought of it. She had no idea if her sisters were alright, if they were even alive. She didn’t even know why she was still alive, he could have killed her easily by now. She knew she was the weakest, so did he, it could have been over and done with weeks ago. Sometimes she wished it had been.
The Source’s chambers were interesting, she had thought, a big, square room, a big king size bed though she knew he never used it, a throne by the left wall, some paintings, a chandelier, if she didn’t already know who this all belonged too she would have guessed some kind of rich, snobby aristocrat. And here she was, on the right wall, in her cage, out of the way, she was still in the same clothes she had been captured in, she stank, her hair was limp, her clothes filthy with a mixture of blood and dirt. She hadn’t seen Cole in a long while. He was probably long dead as well.
Who was she kidding? She didn’t feel brave, she’d just read it in one of those self-hell books once that telling yourself that would keep a person positive. Fat lot of good she thought. Her magic was useless to her right now. She cursed her supposed “destiny”, she hated it, she hated The Source and she hated her life. She stopped herself, it was not often that Phoebe chose to hate anything. What was happening to her?
A reddish aura bled through the chandelier into the middle of the room before a tower of flames erupted, when they died down a figure was standing there, it was him.
“So, are you ready for your next treatment?” The Source asked with glee.
Piper was sitting in the attic, in “her” spot, she had decided to call it, since this was pretty much the only place you’d find her these days. She was sitting by the table, the book open in front of her.
“Blood to blood I summon thee, blood to blood, return to me”.
Piper threw the yarrow root in the cauldron and pricked her finger with an athame, she hoped, prayed that this time it would work, blood dribbled down into the bowl. She waited for a minute, at this point it was like a performance at the theatre. Rehearsed so many times that she’d lost count of how often she’d performed it. Nothing. Again. Her fingers were covered with little holes, she had cast this spell about twenty times today alone. She didn’t care, Leo could heal them later.
She felt lost. Completely alone. Leo was always “up there”, trying to find some kind of lead that would help them find Phoebe, and as for Prue, she may as well have not even been there at all for all the help she had been. Piper had to be honest, she resented her older sister a lot right now, she didn’t know if Prue had just blocked it out, or if she was in some kind of denial. But she refused to even talk about it, like she had just given up. But Piper wouldn’t do that, she’d never leave Phoebe down there, and if she was dead and they just didn’t know it yet, well then, she needed to know that to.
Prue slammed the door behind her as she walked through the manor door, it had been a tough day at work, her heart hadn’t really been in it, she had snapped the pictures but nothing had come up right, her boss hadn’t been happy and had replaced her with someone else for the shoot. She didn’t mind, these days she didn’t have much passion for photography.
She made her way into the kitchen for a drink, wine was her favorite these days, and any wine would do, whatever they had. She poured the red into a nice glass and took a deep drink, that’s better she thought, better to blur everything out.
She made her way over to the dining table when a cool breeze blew against her shoulders, she looked around to see a white, shining light materialize into the kitchen, when the light faded. It was her mother standing there in front of her.
“I’ve come to talk to you Prue” she said in what was supposed to be in a stern voice.
“Well that’s nice, where were you the rest of my life?” she sneered back.
Patty flinched, unused to the venom in her daughter’s voice.
Prue hung her head, she shouldn’t have said that, but it had felt good to let loose some of her anger, even if it was on someone who didn’t deserve it.
Patty regained her composure, “I’m here to talk about Phoebe”.
Prue sighed, this was not a subject she wanted to talk about.
“Your sister needs your help, they both do, you can’t just give up, me and your grams, we’ve been watching” Patty said.
“Phoebe’s dead and Piper’s in denial” Prue replied sternly.
“I haven’t given up, I’ve moved on” she declared with not much conviction.
“I don’t believe that, and I don’t think you do either” Patty said back.
“I know you think it’s your fault….” Patty began to say when….
A loud clang rang out over the kitchen, Prue had thrown her wine glass threw Patty and it had hit the cupboards across the room and smashed, the wine spilling out everywhere, like blood Prue thought.
“This is none of your business, and as I said, I don’t want to talk about it, with you, with Piper, with anyone!” Prue yelled.
“I’m here to tell you it’s not your fault” Patty continued. “Someone has to tell you that so you can move on from this and find Phoebe, she’s alive Prue, I know it”.
“How?” Prue demanded.
“You’d know if she was dead, your bond is so strong, that if one of you died your emotions, your powers, they’d be weaker”, “and from where I’m standing, they look as strong as ever”.
Prue sank to the floor, in tears, Patty tried to comfort her, but she settled for laying her hand just above Prue’s head, she couldn’t do much more as a ghost.
“She’s my little sister, and I failed her, I let him take her away from me, from us” Prue gasped out in between sobs.
She felt like such a failure, she hadn’t just let Phoebe down, she had disappointed Piper as well as herself too.
“You can still fix this, I know it, start by helping Piper, and go from there”.
Patty vanished into the air as white orbs surrounded her and spun out across the room.
Prue sat and rested her back against the kitchen wall, breathing deeply whilst trying to regain her composure.
“What’s going on”? Piper asked.
Prue’s head flitted to the right, Piper was in the kitchen doorway, peering inside at Prue, she looked nervous, almost cautious to be talking to her. Prue let the shame wash over her as she got up. She wrapped her arms around Piper and took her into a hug, Piper resisted at first, but soon relaxed, the both of them collapsed onto the floor in tears, consoling each other.
Phoebe was strapped to the usual metal frame, her hands and feet tied together as The Source took his usual position by her head, she saw that he had invited some guests today, a grimlock, some upper level looking demons including a woman in red as well as Shax, The Source’s assassin, who to her horror was clearly still alive, which probably meant her sisters were dead. She held back a sob as The Source began to speak.
“You are here, my most trusted advisories, to see the fruits of my labour as it were” his big, booming voice echoed around the chamber.
He raised his hands on both sides of her head and she felt the familiar sensation of being dropped into deep water. Images swam through her head, those of destruction, of victory, of blood, it was the same as usual, except this time, those images were interspersed with memories of her childhood, of the time she had taken a jacket of Prue’s and Piper had been the one to get the blame. Or the time she had been arguing with Piper over her favorite doll going missing.
“Hate them Phoebe, hate them all” she heard a gravelly voice whispering into her ear.
Her eyes snapped open, she looked around her. She was back in her cage, not really able to remember what had just happened, her mind had blanked, she was taken from the cage, she remembered being strapped to the table, but the rest was empty. She sighed and sunk to the cage floor, shivering, she didn’t know why, but there was a bitter taste on her tongue.
The Source had summoned her, and of course she would come, the mysterious woman in red made her way into the chamber, he was standing in front of her, she kneeled and nodded her head in a show of respect.
He raised his arm, she stood, she smiled.
“I see your plan is going wonderfully my liege” the woman said with a smile.
“Indeed it is Seer”, but I am anxious that it is taking this long, their bond is much stronger than I gave them credit for”.
“They are The Charmed Ones oh evil one, the most powerful good witches, their bond is literally prophesised, it does not surprise me that one of them would be this hard to break”.
“You promised me a victory Seer!” The Source thundered.
“Yes I did, and soon we will have just that” she promised.
“Fine, be gone with you” he waved an arm to dismiss her.
She backed away slowly before vanishing in a wave of indigo light.
She reappeared in her own chambers, bits of bone loitered about, mainly used for evil rituals. Her eyes went white as she looked into the future, she smiled at what she saw.
“Oh yes, my liege, soon, I will have just that”.
She cackled as she looked down in the well at the centre of her room, she could just about make out a figure down there, chained up. She had kept him a secret, had not dared tell a soul she had him alive, as all of the underworld including The Source were under the impression he was dead. But she needed him if her plan was to work.
But she needed to figure out how to go about the next part of her plan. Helping, she gulped in disgust, The Charmed Ones.
Leo rarely enjoyed orbing into the manor these days, it was fraught with tension and anxiety, it made him nervous, he didn’t know which set of sisters he was going to find, the cut the tension like a knife kind or the playful, fun kind.
The last thing he expected when he orbed into the kitchen was to see Prue and Piper on the floor sobbing into each other’s shoulders. He backed away into the laundry room, he didn’t want to interrupt what he suspected was a sorely needed moment for the both of them.
It was too late though, Piper had spotted him, both her and Prue got up and choked back some tears, for the first time in weeks they were smiling. He took that as a sign that he could talk.
“You two uh….make up?” He asked quietly.
“We’re sisters” Prue nodded, “we always make up”.
“Even if it takes half a century” Piper laughed.
“Well, I really do hate, and I really mean that, to interrupt but the elders have found a dark source of energy coming from downtown that could maybe have something to do with Phoebe, it may be nothing but it’s the first demonic activity we’ve seen since, well, she went missing.”
“Do they know what kind of demonic activity?” Piper inquired.
“No they do not, they can’t get a read on it, but I checked it out and some lesser criminals have gone missing from around that area lately”.
“Gee what a loss” Prue smirked jokingly.
“We’ll check it out, right Piper?” Prue asked.
“Uh…sure, but remember we’re one witch down….I mean temporarily down, but if it’s something that strong and we don’t have the power of three to help….”
“Don’t worry, I’m gonna orb you straight in, the elders don’t want to take any chances with their remaining two Charmed Ones, if it gets dicey I’ll orb you straight back here” Leo said.
“Ok then, but first we must prepare” Piper said, determined.
Ten minutes later and Prue and Piper had gathered anything they could think of, athames, generic vanquishing potions and some charms for good luck.
“Let’s save our sister” Prue said.
They each took one of Leo’s hands and the three orbed out in a swirl of bright bluish light, one second they were in the kitchen, and the next they were standing in a dank alley in downtown San Francisco.
The smell hit Piper at once.
“Eurghk, what is that?” she asked whilst wrinkling her nose.
“Definitely smells evil to me” Prue answered.
The three of them made their way cautiously down the alley, as they approached the end they heard screaming.
“Where is that coming from?” Leo queried.
They heard the screaming coming from a large door on the right.
“There” Prue pointed.
“Stand back, I’ll blow it up” Piper confidently said.
Prue and Leo nodded and took a step back, not sure what to expect from Piper’s unpredictable new power.
She raised her hands and took the usual stance, only for Leo to freeze.
“Uh Piper” Prue pointed towards her Whitelighter.
“Oh for God’s sake” Piper yelled exasperatingly.
She shrugged off her jacket and raised her hands again, the door blew into smithereens as shards of woods splintered over them, with Leo unfreezing at the same time.
A man came running out, pushing past the sisters and went tumbling into Leo, knocking them both to the ground.
Prue turned to face the door, standing in it were now three feminine figures, wearing what she thought were particularly skimpy maroon outfits, they had claws the size of a lion and had tribal looking markings around their faces.
They came charging towards the man, he got up and bolted down the street.
“Not so fast ladies” Piper yelled as she raised her hands and blew up a dumpster to the left of the demons.
“Piper no!” Leo shouted, but it was too late.
The demons had turned their attention onto Piper.
“I don’t think so” Prue stood in front of her sister.
She flicked her arm and nothing happened.
“Wait what?” she exclaimed in surprise.
“Leo what is happening?” she demanded.
Leo hurried to stand up and ran to the girls, grabbing them by the arms and pulling them to the back of the alley so he could get his charges to safety.
“Leo, what are those things?” Prue asked.
“They’re furies, they go after evil doers, but they can’t tell the difference between a petty thief and a murderer, they go after everyone”.
They had almost made it to the back when a fury smoked its way in front of them, literally appearing in a haze of steam.
It knocked Leo back to the ground and started attacking Prue, she blocked the attack with her arm and back handed the fury across the face, it snarled at her and whirled around to perform a kick, Prue caught it and lifted the fury off the ground and into the wall next to her.
The other two furies smoked in front of Piper and knocked her to the ground, one of them breathing smoke into Piper’s mouth, she pushed the fury off her as Prue whirled around and kicked the other one hard in the stomach.
They ran to Leo as he staggered to his feet, grabbed his arms and he didn’t hesitate to quickly orb them back to the manor kitchen.
They all sank to the floor to catch their breath, Piper coughing as she regained her wits.
“Are you two ok?” Leo asked, worried.
“We’re fine, I think, right Piper?”
Piper coughed some more and replied “Yeah I guess”.
“Well, unless Phoebe has managed to perform some kind of magical plastic surgery on herself, I’m guessing that those demons were both not her, nor knew where we could find her” Piper angrily stood.
“Well, we knew it could be a long-shot” Leo said.
“You know what Leo? I am damn tired of all these long-shots, for once can we not just have something go our friggin’ way?!” Piper yelled and stormed off out of the kitchen and towards the stairs.
“Don’t worry Leo, I got this” Prue said.
She rushed out after Piper. Leo just sunk down into a chair by the table, wondering if this mess would ever end.
Phoebe was just waking up, she’d had such a nice dream, her and her sisters, eating dinner together, before Prue had stood up and stabbed her through the eye with a bread knife, but that would never happen. Prue would never do that to her.
She shook her head, wondering what had gotten into her, though she had a sneaking suspicion it was more of a “who.”
It took her a moment to realise there was a figure standing in front of her, a dark skinned woman with a red cloak draped over her.
“Awake at last I see” she commented
“Well there isn’t much to do here except sleep” Phoebe snarled back.
“Ooh, testy are we?” the woman cackled.
“I like that in a good witch” she smiled.
“I am The Seer, I work for The Source”.
“Come to watch the monkey in the cage then have we?” Phoebe murmured.
“Well I’m sorry, but business hours are closed”.
“Actually, I have a plan to set you free”, “I have my own agenda” The Seer said confidently.
“Not all of us want war with the good side” The Seer continued.
“I for one just want peace, and as long as you are here, your sisters will wage war on the underworld, and innocent demons will perish”.
“Innocent? Demons?” Phoebe giggled, “That’s a good one”.
“We aren’t all interested in world domination you know”, “some of us just want harmony”.
“As a disciple to The Source I have access to the demonic wasteland, where I have found some very interesting characters who are willing to help me, and you” The Seer said.
“And why would dead demons want to help the girl who put them there?” Phoebe inquired, suspicious.
“Oh, a lot of them don’t, but some of those that survive there were put there by The Source, not you, though you did help”.
“I’m sending them to your sisters right now”.
The couple approached the front door to the Halliwell manor, unsure of what to expect. The Seer had made them corporeal for 24 hours, just enough time for them to help the witches and get revenge on him.
But they knew they wouldn’t be welcomed, the last time they had seen each other was not as you might imagine, on good circumstances. The woman hurried ahead, eager to get this over and done with.
“Hannah, kitten”, the man said.
“No need to rush”.
Piper was in the attic, not feeling her best, but motivated to find Phoebe after her and Prue had finally reconciled.
She held back a cough, her throat felt like it was burning. She heard the doorbell and figured Prue would get it since she was downstairs, then she heard yelling. Lots of it.
She hurried down the steps and saw to her surprise two figures at the bottom in crumpled positions. A man and a woman. The man lifted his head, Piper spluttered.
“What the hell are they doing here?” she yelled.
“Your guess is as good as mine” Prue snarled.
“Last time we saw you one of you was black and furry, the other was food, so what the hell are you doing back?” Prue demanded.
Rex and Hannah stood, brushing their clothes down.
“If you’d give us a second to explain we can tell you!” Hannah shouted.
“Hannah, calm down” Rex pleaded.
He continued “We’re here to help you rescue your sister, we have been sent by a, you could say neutral party, one that wants your sister free from the clutches of The Source”.
“What’s in it for you?” Piper accused.
“We want revenge” Hannah replied.
“Remember when I burst into flames, yeah, me too, it burnt worse than hell, it was him”.
“The Source killed you?” Prue said, surprised.
“We failed him, and no one can do that without consequences”.
“So, wait, he’s been after us this whole time?” Piper asked.
“As far back as you two?” she continued.
“Yes” Rex obliged, “right from the very start, he knew who you were and what kind of threat you could become, have become”.
Piper sank down onto a step, her pulse racing, she could barely breathe, was she having some kind of anxiety attack.
Leo approached her and gasped, Piper wondered why until she looked down at her hands, long talons had grown out of the tops of her fingers.
“Stand back everyone” Rex yelled.
“I’ve seen this”, “I think she’s turning into a fu….”
His words were cut off as Piper let out a blood curdling scream and was engulfed by smoke, when the smoke vanished her transformation was complete, she was now a fury.
The remaining three furies smoked in behind her, grabbed her by the arms and smoked out.
Prue and Leo could only stand there, helpless, it had all happened so fast. Prue sunk down to her knees, unable to grasp that she had just lost another sister.
“I’ve checked the book” Leo said, walking down from the attic.
“It says to stop someone from becoming a fully-fledged fury you need to close the portal of unexpressed fury”.
“What does that even mean?” Prue said, frustrated.
“If I might?” Rex appeared with Hannah from around the corner.
“Oh, you’re still here” Prue sighed.
“Yes, and we aren’t going until we get your sister back” Hannah said.
“Both of them” Rex finished.
“I have an idea” Hannah said.
“It may be a little rash, but we can use me and Rex as bait, draw the furies out, they go after evil doer’s right?”
“Well, you’re already here, so why wouldn’t they have attacked yet?” Prue queried.
“They may want to get Piper settled in” Rex said.
He turned to Hannah, “I don’t want you a part of this, let me be the bait, I couldn’t bare it if someone happened to you” Rex said, his hands cupped around Hannah’s face.
“Well whadda you know?” Prue smirked, “evil can love”.
“We’ll back you up” Hannah said.
Rex paced back and forth down the hallway of the manor, he was anxious, now he had two Charmed Ones to save, and a rapidly ticking alarm clock, they only had about 22 hours now. The Seer would not be pleased if they didn’t meet their deadline.
Suddenly an overwhelmingly high pitched scream filled his ears, making them bleed, he let out a scream, sunk to his knees, he was in agony.
“Rex!” Hannah shouted as she came running out of her hiding spot.
“Hannah no, get back!” He yelled.
Piper and another fury smoked in front of Rex, the fury knocked Hannah to the floor, winded she got up and yelled, “NOW!”
Prue astral projected into the hallway, performing an expert roundhouse kick on the fury and knocking her against the front door.
“Witchy powers may not work on furies, but warlock ones do” Prue said as she ducked whilst Hannah stood and shot a firebolt at the fury, she screamed and burst into flames.
“Huh, is that what I looked like?” Hannah questioned.
The other two furies smoked in behind Rex and Hannah.
“Going for the sneak attack, nice try Piper” Prue said as she jumped up into the air, used her telekinesis to flip herself over Rex and Hannah and onto the other side. One fury slashed her talons at Prue, catching her arm and making her stagger.
“I just bought that shirt!” Prue yelled angrily as she pulled the hidden athame from inside her boot and plunged it into the fury who exploded with a scream.
Two down, two to go, Prue thought.
Rex had recovered, he stood in front of Piper, trying to shield Hannah away.
“You don’t want to do this Piper, we’re trying to help you get Phoebe back”.
Prue had just dispatched the last fury when Piper smoked out and then in front of Prue.
“How dare you!” she yelled.
She tumbled into Prue, the two fell to the floor before Prue had done something she had never done before, she astral projected herself and Piper into Phoebe’s room.
Piper looked around, shocked, she sunk to the floor, crying, smoke erupting around her as she banged the floor with her fists.
“How could they all just die and leave me here all alone?!” Piper screamed.
“You were never alone Piper”, “I was here!” Prue consoled.
“Yeah right, miss in denial, you left me alone for weeks to try and find Phoebe all alone, we need her Prue, not just for the power of three but for us, as sisters” Piper collapsed to the floor as smoke erupted around her and she returned to normal.
Prue took Piper’s hand and together the sisters projected down to their bodies, Piper’s in the hallway, and Prue’s in her hidden spot in the dining room.
Leo had watched the commotion from outside Phoebe’s room, he had felt Piper in pain and return to her human form but didn’t want to intervene, this was another private moment he didn’t want to interrupt.
He slowly orbed down into the living room, Rex and Hannah sitting on the stairway, Prue and Piper on the sofa hugging.
“I’m so sorry Piper, I’ll never leave you again” Prue said, whilst stroking Piper’s hair.
“And together we’ll find Phoebe”.
“About that” Hannah piped up.
“We don’t have much time, did we mention the 24 hour deadline?”
“What?!” both sisters yelled in unison.
“Guess not” Hannah said.
“Now it’s more like 21 hours” Rex corrected.
“So in 21 hours we’re supposed to come up with a plan, sneak down into the underworld, evade all the demons and The Source AND break Phoebe out” Piper said waiting for conformation from the warlocks.
“Well, yes” Rex said, shrugging.
“Then let’s get to it” Prue said.
End of Chapter One, stay tuned for Chapter Two: “Rescue Strategy”.
