2016
The family, minus the two youngest, who were downstairs in bed, was sat in the living room with a lot of hot chocolate and cookies. They were discussing how to find information that could help them get close enough to Phoebe and Cole to vanquish them.
"The Book of Shadows is the obvious place to look," Piper was saying, "and Leo could ask the Elders what they know."
"Still," said Pyralis, "I don't think it will be enough. There's got to be any number of things protecting them, I don't really think the good side would know about all of them."
"What, so you just wanna ask one of the bad guys how to kill the Source?" Paige was skeptical.
"I was thinking more along the lines of 'interrogate', but yeah, pretty much."
"Wouldn't that be dangerous?" Phyre asked.
"Not if we did it right. Anyway, what we're going to be doing after that is dangerous."
"But that's something we have to do," said Paige. "We shouldn't put ourselves at even more risk."
"Even if it diminishes the other risk?" Pyralis gave Paige a challenging look.
"Maybe Pyralis is right." Piper looked at Paige. "And we have interrogated a demon before..."
"What?" Paige was confused. "When?"
"Well, me and Prue summoned a demon, but we got the wrong one, so I froze him and then unfroze his head, and we made him tell us everything."
"So let's just do that," said Prue. "I mean, it can't hurt us if it's frozen, can it?"
"I dunno," Paige said, "It would have to be an upper-level demon in order for it to know the things we want to know. And a whole lot of upper-level demons are immune to our powers."
"There must be some that aren't." Pyralis bit into a cookie. "It's just a matter of finding the right one. Anyway, the only other way I can see to find out these things would be to go undercover down there, and that really would be dangerous."
"What do you think, Leo?" Piper asked her husband, who was being unusually quiet.
He shrugged. "I think you should do it. If you can find a suitable demon, that is."
"Okay, then that's what we'll do." Paige looked round the room and everyone nodded in agreement. "So tomorrow morning, Pyralis will write a generic demon-summoning spell, Phyre and Piper will see if they can make a potion, and the rest of us will go stock up on witchy supplies. Then in the afternoon we summon a demon and find out what he knows. Is that okay with everyone?"
Nobody protested. Shortly after they all went to bed.
* * *
"Elkor: Upper-level demon who feeds on the flesh of people hit by lightning. Shoots lightning bolts and has various other powers." Phyre looked up from the Book of Shadows. "What do you think?"
"Nope," said Piper from her seat on the couch.
"Yeah, 'various other powers'? That could mean anything." Paige said.
They were looking in the Book for a demon to interrogate, and had been for the past two hours. Leo was downstairs with Phillip and Kalinda helping them train their powers. Everyone else except Phyre was slouched around the attic, extremely bored while she flipped through the pages.
Pyralis groaned. "Come on, just just take this one and get it over with!"
"No thank you," said Piper, "We're going to have plenty of opportunities to get killed soon enough, we don't need to add another one."
"But I spent hours on this spell and now it looks like we not even gonna be able to use it!"
"What about the one for the Source?" asked Paige.
"Done. The other one was fine anyway, it was just lacking power."
Paige shook her head. "I don't understand, how can you get more power than that of the entire Halliwell line?"
"I didn't need to. The problem with the other spell was that it was trying to draw from that power directly, and there just wasn't enough, well, bandwidth, so to speak, with only three people saying it. It's like trying to drink a gallon of water through one tiny straw, there's a lot there, but you only get a little at a time."
"So you're saying we just need more people to say it?"
"Sort of... Look, who knows how to draw from our ancestors' powers the best?" Pyralis grinned at Paige's perplexed expression, then went on: "Our ancestors themselves, of course! So..." She handed her aunt a piece of paper. "All you have to do is summon them and get them to say the spell with you. They may be ghosts, but they still have powers. And this way all it takes is one of us to say the spell."
"Clever." Piper smiled at Pyralis.
"Thank you. The one for the Queen is done too."
"Let's see." Prue held out her hand and Pyralis gave her the spell. "Ooh, nasty..." she said, reading it.
Pyralis just grinned.
"I think I've found one." Phyre was reading a page in the book as fast as she could. "Jackson: An upper-level demon who achieved his status not because of his powers, but his formidable organizational skills. Helps keep the underworld running smoothly. His only power is the ability to burn skin by touching it with his hands."
"Finally!" Pyralis got out of her chair and went to look at the Book. "Well, hurry up!" she told the others, scribbling something on a piece of paper. "Here's the spell."
They all stood around the book and said the spell. A whirlwind of dust appeared in the center of the room. A moment later it died down and a confused-looking demon turned to face them. He just had time to open his mouth before Prue froze him.
"Not much to look at, is he?" Pyralis commented, coming round to him before Piper unfroze his head.
"What the...?" The demon looked around, then seemed to recognize them. "Oh, it's you. What's left of the Halliwells." He laughed. "What do you want?"
"A little respect might be nice," said Paige. She moved closer to him and crossed her arms. "We also want you to tell us everything you know about the security measures surrounding the Source and his Queen, and any potential weaknesses we could exploit."
Jackson laughed again. "I don't think so."
"Fine, then I guess we'll just have to kill you and summon the next demon on our list."
"You do realize you're dealing with an upper-level demon here."
"I see, and that makes you immune to our powers, right?" Paige grinned at him. "A fouteen-year-old just froze you, Jackson. Just think what us adults could do."
He looked away from her. "Okay," he said, sighing in exasperation.
Paige smiled. "So what precautions has the Source taken to protect himself?"
Jackson frowned at her. "He always has at least four bodyguards with him, each with a different power. There are several spells to protect his living and working area. There's one to hide it, and even if you do find it you have to know the password or you'll be killed on the spot. There is also an energy field covering the entrance which only lets evil pass. It can be made to disappear, but only from the inside. In the main room, the only room with an entrance, there are five servants, who have powers and tonics close at hand. And then of course there is the Source himself, who shares all his powers with his Queen. They remain undefeated despite several attempts by other demons to seize the throne." He sneered. "You'll be killed within seconds."
"We'll see about that."
"So how do we find them?" asked Piper.
"There are several portals leading to the cavern outside. The only one I know of is in a country house in England."
"Can you show us where it is on a map?"
"No. The only thing I know is that it's called 'Black Manor'."
"Nice name," said Paige, not quite seriously. "Anything else you'd like to tell us?"
"Not really."
"Okay then." Piper froze him, then looked at her daughters, who had been taking notes. "You get all that?"
They nodded.
"6 minutes, 21 seconds," said Pyralis, holding up a stopwatch. "Do we use the 5-minute memory-wipe or the 10?"
"Better make it the 10," said Paige.
Pyralis shrugged and threw her the potion. Paige took up position in front of Jackson, then nodded at Piper, who unfroze him. Paige threw the potion and the two of them rushed to get the reverse-summoning spell and read it. Jackson disappeared in much the same way he had come.
"Well," said Piper, smiling, "That went well. I think it's time for some food."
* * *
The rest of the afternoon was spent training, honing their powers to perfection, the evening and most of the night coming up with a plan. Finally, at about 5 am, they had one that they were satisfied with. They all got up and headed for their beds, Pyralis going into the kitchen first for a glass of water. Everyone except Piper, that is...
Leo had already taken a few steps towards the stairs before he realized his wife wasn't following. "You coming?" he asked, turning back.
"In a minute," she squeaked.
Leo went to sit next to her and saw tears running down her cheeks. "Hey, don't cry..." he told her, gently wiping them away.
"I'm sorry..." She sniffed. "It's just... Soon I'll be the only one left. Prue's gone, and Phoebe will be gone, and I know there's Paige, but it's not the same, I didn't grow up with her. I miss Phoebe so much, Leo... And y'know, this is exactly what she must've felt like. Feeling like this is why she turned evil, and it was all my fault, it's all my fault that things got to be like this!"
"Piper, don't say that. It's not your fault." Leo squeezed her hand.
"But it is! I made her do it, I didn't give her the right kind of support, and even though she agreed to it, she never forgave me for-" she sobbed, "For-"
"Hey, hey..." Leo put his arms around her as she cried harder. "It's okay, it wasn't you fault..."
And from behind the kitchen door, Pyralis listened...
Author's note: I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I'm sorry it took me so long to write this chapter, and I'm sorry it's not such a great chapter! In my defense, it was my 17th birthday on Monday, and on Friday I had a Biology test... But still, I'm very sorry! I promise I'll get the next chapter done by Tuesday evening at the latest, probably sooner! And then I will go back to my at-least-one-chapter-a-week routine! And, and... Well, please forgive me? I know I could have explained the planning process in more detail, but I didn't think it was that important, especially in comparison with that last scene. So, do you all want to know what Piper did, huh? It's pretty gross, actually, so gross I'm not sure if I shouldn't change the rating on this to R... But you'll find out soon enough. At least I think it will be a valid reason for Phoebe becoming evil. Okay, off to write chapter 9 before I give anything else away...