Episode 10 - The beginning of the end.

   

About 3 weeks time had passed since the day the sisters made the agreement to offer to let Paige stay with them until she was strong enough to be on her own. In that time period, each of them had visited her periodically and told her stories about the family, and briefly introduced her to magic little by little and a week before she was going to be discharged, Prue made the offer, and she accepted, grateful, she felt this could be a good time to learn more about her heritage and bond with her new sisters.

Finally, it was the day of discharge. Prue, Piper and Phoebe all arrived at the hospital at 1:15, as she was set to be discharged at 1:45. "We have a room all ready for you back at the manor, we want to make you as comfortable as possible, alright?" She said Paige nodded "Thank you again for doing this, it really means a lot to me, that you're helping me." Prue smiled. "It's what family does." Paige smiled and nodded. The nurse came in a 1:45 on the dot, and Paige signed the discharge papers. "I'll go get the car." Prue said, and left the room. They got Paige in a wheel chair and Piper and Phoebe accompanied her out of the hospital. It was a beautiful day outside, the sun was shining. Paige lifted her face and smiled as the sun hit it. "I bet that feels nice." Piper said. "Oh you have no idea." "Come on, lets get you home." Phoebe said, helping to get her in the car. They let her sit in the front, and she had the window down the entire time, letting the breeze hit run through her dark brown locks. Once they got to the manor, they got her in and got her situated, they'd had a room for her, but they also made a bed on the couch, so she could socialize with everyone. "Paige, this is Leo, he's my husband, and our whitelighter." Piper said. Paige looked confused. "Whitelighter?" Leo smiled. "Sort of like a guardian angel, for witches, I guide them, and help them fight evil, I can even heal them if they get wounded." He explained. "Really?" She asked, intrigued. "Wanna see something cool?" Piper asked. Paige nodded. "Promise not to freak out?" Prue asked. "I promise." Piper lifted up Paige's shirt, and took the bandage revealing a gruesome looking wound that was stitched up. Leo placed both of his hands over her wound, and the glowing golden light of his healing powers fell over her like a water fall, and the wound quickly healed. Paige sat up, not feeling the pain anymore, and her eyes widened. "Woah! Y-You did that with your hands." "That's not all magic can do. You said you wanted to meet you birth mother, right?" Piper asked. "Yeah." "Come on." She said smiling, walking towards the stairs. Phoebe helped Paige up, and Prue walked behind her, just in case she fell, but she felt 100% better. They walked up the stairs to the attic, and Piper, Prue and Phoebe stood by the book. "Hear these words, here my cry,spirit from the other side, come to me I summon thee, cross now the great divide." They chanted, and Patty appeared in the circle. "Paige, this is our mom, mom, this is your daughter, Paige." Prue said. Patty was overjoyed, with tears in her eyes. She stepped out of the circle and was magically corporeal. The three sisters looked confused as to how she did that. She embraced Paige, who reciprocated it. "My darling, I'm so glad you're home. Welcome to the family." She said, kissing her cheek. Patty was only allowed down for a short visit, and once she left, they sat Paige down on the red couch that was in the attic. "Are you okay?" Paige had a tear in her eye. "She's so beautiful." "You have her nose, just like me." Phoebe added, smiling."When I found out she was dead, I lost the hope of ever meeting her." Paige said, chuckling slightly and shrugging. "You gave me that chance, thank you." The three of them hugged her, and a blue light came from above them, and the house started to shake a little bit, they all looked up, and looked around. "Uhh, what was that?" Piper asked, she was the first one that let go. "I don't know." Phoebe asked, letting go. "I think it means Paige got her power." Leo said. "How are we supposed to know that that is?" "I'm half whitelighter, aren't I?" She asked. "Yes, you are." "So, can't I orb?" The looked at each other. "Try it." Paige looked at Leo. "How does it work?" "You have to feel it. Sense where you want to go, and focus in on it." Paige nodded and closed her eyes, she focused on the living room of the manor, she tried focusing all her energy on it, she orbed, but didn't go anywhere. She re-opened her eyes to see her three sisters looking at her. "Nice try, maybe aim a little further next time sweetie." Phoebe said. Paige sighed. "Right. Okay." She closed her eyes again, and thought about the living room, but she wasn't specific enough and ended up in the living room of the neighbors house right next door. "Where'd she go?" Phoebe asked, as they heard the screaming of the neighbors. "Ohh, too far, too far!" Prue said, running to the open window, it gave a clear view of the Johnson's house. Paige was running out of it, and back over to the manor. Piper looked at Leo. "I'll take care of it." He said, and orbed over, this was a situation he had to use memory dust for. Paige came back upstairs a few minutes later. "That was too far!""Where were you even aiming for?" Prue asked. "The living room. I just ended up in your neighbors living room instead. I'm pretty sure she almost had a heart attack." Piper sighed. "Okay, well, we know you can orb, now we have to figure out what your witch power is. . .Melinda Warren only practiced three, and we have them." "There was never anything in the book about a fourth sister, so I don't even know what is going to happen now." Phoebe added. In that moment, a whirl of fire appeared in the attic in front of them. They all got on guard, and stood there, and a black hooded figure appeared to them, but he was transparent. "Hello Paige, I see despite my best efforts you are still alive. " The figure said."Who is that?" She whispered to Phoebe, who she was standing behind. "A very evil guy." "It doesn't matter though, in the end it is inevitable. The Power of Four can not exist, one of you will die, and it will be my pleasure to take that life out of you. And as for you Balthazar, don't think you're safe either, I have ordered my bounty hunters double for your head on a platter. We'll be seeing each other soon." Flames whirled around and the figure was gone. "We need to get ready for him, I have a bad feeling about this." Prue said, They spent the next few days trying to figure out what Paige's power was, other than orbing, and between that, they were giving her lessons, teaching her everything they knew about the craft. Prue was teaching her how to write spells, Piper taught her how to mix potions, and Phoebe taught her self defense. When she and Phoebe were down in the basement for a kick boxing session, was when they found out what Paige's power was. Phoebe was training Paige, when a demon shimmered in, Phoebe's back was turned, but Paige saw him, and saw there was a knife closer to Phoebe. "Phoebe look out! Grab the knife!" She called pointing to the blade on the table, bluish white orbs appeared around it, and made it appear in her hand. She was surprised, but threw the knife right at the demon and hit him in the chest, he went up in flames. Phoebe looked surprised as well. "Oh my god! Paige! You saved my life!" She exclaimed, hugging her. "I can orb things with my mind." She said, still in a bit of shock. "Oh! Yes you can!" Phoebe exclaimed happily. "Come on, we have to go tell the others. Phoebe rushed her up the basement stairs, to Prue and Piper who were in the kitchen working on the strongest vanquishing potion they could come up with to defeat The Source. "Paige vanquished a demon! With her power!" Phoebe said, when they got to the top of the stairs, and into the kitchen. "You did?! How?" Prue asked, just as excited. "Apparently I can orb things with my mind. Like, that spoon." She said, holding her hand out, the spoon orbed right to her hand. "Okay, so it's telekinetic orbing, must be the whitelighter in you." Prue said. "Half breed." Piper joked. Paige stuck her tongue out at her. The weeks went on, and Paige got better and better at the craft, she'd just about mastered her powers, and she was able to orb with passengers now. After her first demon, she'd encountered two more that she was able to vanquish with her new power. She was fitting in very well with her new sisters, and after about a month, had taken their offer to move in permanently. The manor actually had four bedrooms, one of them Penny had used has her sewing room, that was now Paige's room. About two weeks after Paige had moved in, all the girls were in the conservatory coming up with their plan on how to defeat the source. "So obviously, this has never been done before. . .nobody has ever been able to vanquish him." Phoebe said. "So then we're going to need to do something that's never been done before." Prue said. "Like what thought?""I don't know." Just as they were talking, an Elder orbed in. "Hello, Prue, Piper, Phoebe." She said, then looked at Paige. "Welcome Paige." She smiled at her. "We have a solution to your problem. You need something that has never been done before." "Uh, yeah, we kind of said that already." Prue said. "You need to invoke the Power of Four. It is a power equal to the hollow, only not destructive. It can only be invoked once, and then it goes away for good. There is a spell in the back of the book, written as a last resort. Use it only if you absolutely have to. Good luck to all of you." She said, and orbed away. The girls went to investegate what the Elder told them, and looked in the back of the book. There was a spell to invoke the Power of Four. "How come we never noticed this before?" Phoebe asked. "Because they probably just added it." Prue said, knowing the elders had a tendency to do that, as did Patty or Penny. They weren't sure how the Power of Four worked. So far with any demon they fought, they'd take turns with. One of them would sit out, and the Power of Three spells still worked. They went over their battle plan over and over again, Prue was like a drill sergeant, making sure everyone knew what the plan was. There was a heaviness to the air that night, they knew something awful loomed on the horizon. Rob sat with Prue that night. "So, do you think Paige is going to be able to handle this once you're gone?" he asked her. "Yeah, she seems to be catching on really well. I think she'll be great." "And you haven't told them yet have you?" "No, 'hey guys, invoking the Power of Four is going to kill me, but don't worry, I'll still visit' isn't exactly dinner conversation." "Not to mention if they knew, they'd probably die themselves, trying to stop it." Prue nodded. "Are we sure this is the right decision?" "Prue, I love you, I have from the moment I met you I think. I knew I loved things about you, and the more we hung out, the more things I loved, until it came to me loving everything about you. I want you to be happy, and if you're having second thoughts-" "I'm not." She interrupted. "I'm not, I feel the same way about you, I just, I feel a little bit of guilt, that's all." "There's nothing to feel guilty about, you have another destiny to fulfill. . .they have to understand that, and they will, in time." Prue nodded, still feeling the guilt. Rob lifted her chin with his finger, and looked her in the eyes. "We're in this together. You and me." She smiled, and he kissed her. Nobody got much sleep that night, they all felt the heaviness, they knew something bad was going to happen today, they know it was a possibility that the bad thing was going to happen today. They were prepared.