Teaser: Prue discovers an unexpected aspect of her PK power.

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At Halliwell Manor:

The three sisters are at home, in the lounge, sitting on the couch, snuggling. Prue is thinking about her boyfriend. Prue is seeing a man named Joe, who had noticed her a while ago. Phoebe still hasn't found the right man, but she isn't settling for it at the moment, only a fun time. Piper secretly wishes Leo was her boyfriend. It is a lazy Saturday afternoon. Piper giggles at a secret thought. Phoebe looks at her askance, "Spill. What's so funny?" Piper cracks a smile at Phoebe and doesn't say anything, but has a look that Phoebe recognizes. She's got the hots for a man. Phoebe's eyes widen, and says to Piper, prodding her in the ribs with her finger, "Come on. Who is it??"

Prue's thoughts are interrupted by Phoebe's jostling motion toward Piper. Prue asks, "What?" Phoebe says in a singsong voice, " o/` Piper's... got... a ... boy...friend! o/` " Prue's interest is piqued, and directs a question over to her younger sister, "Hey...who is it??" She smiles wickedly. Piper giggles and blushes. "Well. It's no one. Yet."

Phoebe's eyes light up. "OH! I know I know. It's.. Leo, isn't it?" Piper looks away and blushes. Prue chuckles at Piper's actions, and reaches over to Piper's hand. "So. Go get him!" Piper looks at Prue like she's nuts. "No way, Prue! I can't make the first move."

Phoebe looks at Piper with rolled eyes. "I'll do it. I'll ask him out." Piper glares and points a finger at Phoebe, "You better not! I'll freeze your sorry ass!" Prue looks at Phoebe with a soft glare, and mentions that if Phoebe tries to do anything dumb, regarding Leo, that she will definetly get her ass spanked. Phoebe looks meek, and nods. "Okay. Okay. Leo's SOOO cute though." Piper smiles at Phoebe, and says, "Isn't he?"

Prue sighs. "I don't have a date tonight, because Joe's busy tonight, so how about we make it a girl's night out?" The other two sisters readily agree. They head out the Manor to go shopping, for a nice dress for tonight. Prue has heard of a new french restaurant out on Oak street, near Quake. Piper wants to go to sample their cooking, since she may learn a new recipe or two. Phoebe agreed because she loves eating out. Prue has told her sisters that she had gotten a bonus from Buckland's the week before, so she's buying dinner.

By late afternoon, the three sisters return home, to change, and drop off their extra shopping items. Phoebe shouts from her bedroom, "Hey Piper, do you have that pearl necklace? Can I borrow it?"

Piper shouts from her bedroom, "No, where is it??"

Phoebe shouts back, "Never mind. I found them here."

Piper growls a little to herself. Phoebe is always borrowing MY stuff, and Prue's. She didn't even ask ME if I wanted to wear it.

Prue shouts from her own bedroom, to Phoebe, "Hey! Where's my black purse?" Phoebe answers in a loud voice, "Prue, I got it. I'll bring it over there." Prue fumes a little, and has the same thought as Piper. They all get dressed, and walk down the stairs, Prue leading, then Piper, then lastly, Phoebe trails down the stairs, in a low cut green dress. Piper looks up at Phoebe's entrance, and whistles softly. "Wow, You look hot, Pheebs." Prue agrees. Prue asks for the black purse, and Phoebe gives it to her. The three sisters go off to the french restaurant, "Cafe a la Merci" and enjoy themselves immensely.

Meanwhile, a demon, hidden in the bushes near the Manor, watches their departure from the Manor. His thoughts are gleeful. A devilish plan forms into his mind. His craggy face filled with spikes, and bluish eyes gleam with evil. He blinks away to his lair. A plan to destroy the Charmed Ones is formulating. He thinks to himself, "I will destroy the Charmed Ones, to gain their powers, and to gain prestige in the heirarchy of the Source! The Oldest has the most interesting power, I have seen in a while..." He forms a vase that seems to mimic the 4th Dynasty and arranges it to be delivered to the doorstep of the Halliwell Manor, sometime in the next afternoon. His plan in mind, seems to be that the power of the witches will be absorbed by a phrase in Japanese that Prue can translate.

Exhausted, the three sisters arrive home. Piper is glowing, and remarks on the delicious food. Phoebe nods and rubs her belly in gratitude. "Yeah, Prue. You could have warned me about the escargot!" Prue shakes her head and chuckles at Phoebe's greenish expression at the thought of snails. Prue just doesn't say anything, except to say, "Pheebs. I'm sorry about the escargot. I thought you knew what it was. At least you asked for something else. I'm so exhausted. Have a good night you two!" She then heads upstairs to her room. Piper pats Phoebe's back, and says, "Do you want some tea? I'm not that tired yet." Phoebe smiles, and takes her up on her offer. They walk over to the kitchen, to chat amiably about this or that until the wee hours of the morning. They are still talking about Leo, and what to do, when Prue walks in the kitchen, after cleaning up. She is surprised that Phoebe and Piper are still up. "Wow. you are up early."

Phoebe looks at her watch, and is startled by the time. 6 30am. "Wow. I never noticed the time."

Piper is startled when she looks outside. "Whoa. What time is it?" Phoebe mutters, "6:30am" Prue looks at the two sisters in awe. "You mean you two stayed up all night?" Phoebe nods. "Well, at least we don't have anything to do today." Piper yawns, covering her mouth with her hand. "Time for me to go to bed." Phoebe agrees with Piper's comment. Phoebe smiles, and says, "See you around lunch or so." Prue chuckles, and thinks to herself, "Wow. Nothing to do today. It must be nice to be like Phoebe." Piper and Phoebe walk up to take their respective naps. Prue settles into the Sun Room, reading the newspaper, and idly listening to the T.V.

After a hour, she gets bored, then gets an idea. "Hey! I could index the BOS." She goes up to the attic, and brings down the BOS with her to the Sun Room, and opens the covers of the book.

Prue spends a hour, curled up with the Book of Shadows, trying to figure out how to index it. She yawns softly. "Okay. How do I index this damn thing?" Her expression becomes frustrated. She flips the book one by one, and sees a pattern somewhat emerge. "Okay...Seems like Demons, then Amulets, then Darkness Forces, then Demons..?" She mutters to herself. Her stomach growls as lunchtime rolls by. Piper is on her way to the kitchen, to prepare lunch, and hears Prue's growling stomach. She enters the Sun Room, and laughs momentarily. "Prue, I'm making lunch." She notices the Book of Shadows splayed open at a random page. "Prue - Demon kicking time?" Prue shakes her head no. "No. Just had a lot of time this morning. I thought I'd attempt to index this thing. But no luck." Piper nods, and pats Prue's shoulder. "Come on, Prue. Let's go in the Kitchen and make lunch. Then you can talk with me, and look in the book." Prue nods, and carries the book along, as she follows Piper into her realm. Prue sighs as she slumps into the chair, opening the Book again.

"I swear, Piper. There is NO recognizable pattern to this book." Piper smiles as she has a thought. "Maybe that's the reason, Prue. I mean, it was written and added to for a long time. No one really could put things in order, and it seems like the book is written as they 'learn' stuff." Prue nods and acknowledges this fact. She also says, "Well, what we need is someone with techy savvy and the patience to create a database of sorts." Prue thinks of Phoebe, and thinks she's the perfect person for that.

A doorbell ringing interrupts Prue's thoughts. She starts to go to the door, when Phoebe scrambles downstairs to grab the door. She opens the door, looks around, disappointed, but notices the package on the doorstep. Prue catches up with Phoebe to see her picking up the package. "Pheebs, who's it for?"

Phoebe idly responds, "I dunno. It says P. Halliwells. For all of us?"

Piper walks up to her sisters, as they are conversing about the package. Prue looks up at Piper, with an interested glance, and says, "We got a gift." Piper raises her eyebrows, and says, "From who?"

Prue looks at the package again, and doesn't notice any names of who it was from. Save the words, "A friend." Prue is cautious. "Hmm. No names. Let's be careful." Phoebe is impatient and wriggling, and wants to open the package.

The three sisters walk into the living room, and Prue starts to open the package, to reveal a Ming Vase from the 4th Dynasty (Not a history buff, but if I'm wrong, sorry!) Leo suddenly orbs into the living room, startling the sisters to almost drop the vase, and loudly says, "Stop! Don't do anything!" Prue quickly sets the vase down on the coffeetable. "Prue. Don't do anything with it yet!"

Piper looks at Leo and asks, "Why not?" Leo says, "It's a trap." Prue nods. "Makes sense." She looks closely at the Vase, and declares, "It's an obvious forgery. There's Kanji written on it, but I can't quite make it out."

Phoebe stares at Prue. "You can read Japanese? Wow. I'm jealous." Prue smiles at Phoebe. She looks closer at the Kanji, and can only make out 2 or 3 words, that she recognizes. She tells her sisters, "I can only make out 2 or 3 of the words. They go 'Power', 'Loss', and something like Chant? or Song?" Leo surprises them all, by saying that he knows Japanese. He reads the inscription quickly, and pales. He informs the sisters that this is a spell, if Prue *had* said it, that their powers would have been absorbed into this vase. The three sisters grow pale. Prue becomes angry, and starts to glare at the vase, but Leo stops her with a word, "Prue." Prue looks at Leo, and asks, "What?"

Leo touches the vase, without a problem. He explains that they can touch the vase without losing their powers, but if the spell is incanted, then they will indeed lose their powers. He looks at Phoebe expectantly. She whimpers softly, and asks in a somewhat nervous voice, "Are you sure, Leo?" Leo nods solemnly. Phoebe reaches for the vase tentatively. She stiffens abruptly. Piper catches Phoebe so she doesn't fall. She is overwhelmed with a vision.

Black and white surroundings. A ugly demon covered in blunt projections of spikes, with claws. He advances onto the sisters. Prue tries to glare and nothing happens. Piper tries to freeze him, but can only hold it for a second. Phoebe runs over to him and tries to kick him. Prue is knocked unconcious by an electric sphere, and Phoebe is stunned when he backhands her into a heap some distance away. The vision leaves her quickly, leaving her shaken. Prue takes Phoebe's chin into her hand, and looks into her eyes, "Pheebs. What did you see?"

"Prue... You were knocked out..by electric sphere or something. Grey demon. Spikes all over his face. Piper tried to freeze him, but could only keep it for a second at a time. I tried to tackle him, but got knocked unconcious. Prue couldn't move him, or knock him back with her power. It was still daylight...", explains a distraught Phoebe. Prue blinks and sits down for a moment on the couch, her hand on her forehead, thinking. Piper hugs Phoebe for a moment. Leo interrupts into their thoughts, "The Book of Shadows might help." Piper looks at Leo, nodding. "Right. Let me go get it. It's in the Kitchen, right?" Prue nods, as Piper retrieves the BOS, and opens it.

The Book's pages are flipped by Phoebe, who slowly grows with frustration. "Dammit. Where is it? He could be here anytime -", as Phoebe jabs her finger down at the page, to reveal the visage of the Grey Demon. The other three crowd Phoebe at her sides, and look at the entry in the Book.

"Varlian, the Demon of Forgery. He can forge objects, infused with spells, to strip powers from unsuspecting witches."

Piper interrupts, saying, "Ah. That's why we got the vase." Phoebe nods, and continues:

"He can not be vanquished without the Power of Three, plus an unexpected aspect of the one who possesses the power to move things." Prue stares at this sentence, and is confused. "What the hell does that mean? Unexpected aspect?" Prue looks at the rest of them in confusion. Leo shrugs in puzzlement, along with the two sisters. Phoebe looks at her sister, and says, "Maybe there's a different way of using your power." Prue stands up quickly and paces in front of them, thinking to herself deeply. They don't have much time to do much else, when Varlian bursts into the Foyer, and into the Living room. Everyone stands up and takes a fighting stance.

Prue is startled out of her musings, and glares at the demon, hoping to at least detain him. She does not succeed, and Phoebe tackles him as he tries to throw an electric sphere at Prue. Prue screams, and jumps back. Into the air, the sphere completely missing Prue, as it crackles into the fireplace with a loud boom. Prue is shocked at this new power. Then she remembers the comment, "with an unexpected aspect..." She says to her sisters, "I have an idea." Varlian is shocked to see Prue floating in midair, and attempts to aim again, and lets loose another electric sphere. The sphere races toward Prue, and she becomes a blur, and dodges to the right. She has an unexpected insight.

She uses her eyes, focusing on the target. Varlian's eyes. She attempts to blind him with her power. Valerin jerks back suddenly, then snarls at the sisters, clutching his eyes, and shouting, "I'm BLIND! You will pay for this, witches!" He lets loose stray electric spheres that narrowly miss everyone, everytime it's released.

Prue declares in a bold voice, "I don't think so Varlian. Let's do it!" Piper and Phoebe's face become determined, and the three sisters start the spell.

Prue chants: The Power of Three Will Set Us Free!
Piper chants: The Power of Three Will Set Us Free!
Phoebe chants: The Power of Three Will Set Us Free!

He starts screaming in agony, as a slow pool of flame emerges from the ground and slowly devours Valerin's body into ashes. The pile of ash that remains of Varlian swirls into a mini vortex, and vanishes in a soft imploding sound.

Prue smiles, but her voice wavers for a moment, "Erm. How do I get down?" Leo smiles at her, "Just think 'down'. It's just your normal power, but a different aspect." Prue concentrates on slowly moving herself down onto the ground. As her feet touch the ground, she breathes a sigh of relief. Phoebe rushes over to Prue and hugs her tightly. "Wow, that was SO cool, Prue." Piper looks at her with a small smile. "Amazing." Leo is proud of Prue.

Prue grins. She has a private thought to herself, "This is gonna be VERY interesting, indeed." She chuckles softly. Phoebe and Piper look at her strangely for a moment, but their thoughts seem to echo hers. They smile.

[Fin]