Fan Fic and More

Hey Jerry! I just wanted to tell you that I have been reading your fic too, I am still catching up though, you've gone a long ways in it! But it's really great; you did a good job capturing the characters of the Charmed Ones.

Thanks Angie. I knew someone was reading it. The hit count keeps going up. lol. I hope you're enjoying it. I'll be posting a new part very soon so keep an eye out for it.

Jerry

NINETEEN

“That’s impossible,” said George. “The Tome of the Ancients has been lost for millennia. No one knows where it is. And I don’t see how resurrecting your ancestor is going to help with that.”

“Oh, it will help plenty,” said Jessica. “You see, Giles Corey wasn’t a wizard. That’s what they often call male witches back then. But he was a bit of an historian. Specifically, the history of ancient civilizations. With his knowledge he was able to piece together what happened to the tome.”

Jessica walked over to the books on the shelf and pulled out one of the books. It looked very old. She casually flipped through the book as she talked.

“After they murdered him,” continued Jessica, “the prosecutors packed up his belongings. Normally everything a condemned witch owned became the property of the state. But the prosecutors had little use for Giles’ personal belongings. They were packed up and stored for destruction later.

“But they never got around to it. After the hysteria over the witch hunts died down, one of the surviving victims sent the belongings to a relative of Giles’. Part of those belongings included this, his personal diary. Outlining his revelation that he had located the Tome of the Ancients.

“But it didn’t say where the tome was. Or how he had figured out where it was hidden. Without that information it’s impossible to duplicate what he did and locate the tome. There’s only one person who can answer the question of where the tome is hidden. Giles himself.”

“So you plan to resurrect him and learn where it is,” said Leo.

“Exactly,” said Jessica. “Once I have the tome I will be invulnerable. There are magicks in that book that make even the powers of the Elders and the Source’s pale in comparison. Palmer and I will rule both the Elders and the underworld together.”

“There’s just one little problem with your plans,” said Prue. “Us. We figured out what’s going on. And we’ve come to stop you.”

“Stop me?” laughed Jessica. “You think I’m not prepared for you? When you appeared in my home for the first time the other day I thought you had come to stop me then. I thought you might have figured out what was going on. I’ve heard you can be quite resourceful. Palmer and I were ready to kill you then.

“But as it turned out you didn’t know anything. So I steered you in the right direction. So that we could learn where Penny had hidden what she had stolen from Palmer. We needed the Dark Grimoire back to complete our plans. Not to mention the athame specially enchanted to steal the souls we needed.

“I used my clairvoyant power keep an eye on you. I saw you find that loose floorboard where the athame was hidden. I figured Penny had put the other items in there with it. But Palmer didn’t find them when he went back for them. That’s why he didn’t just kill you then, although he was quite capable of it. We still needed to know where the Grimoire was hidden.”

“You played us from the beginning,” said Piper.

“Of course,” said Jessica. “The Tome of the Ancients is too great a prize. I must admit I thought you’d figure it out sooner than you did. Especially after I made that little slip to Leo about the enchantment on the athame. But everything worked out fine. I knew I’d have to kill you before I could go ahead with my plans. You know too much. The next time one of the descendents was killed you’d have figured out what was going on. I’ll make your deaths quick and as painless as possible. I owe Penny that much for all those years of friendship.”

“We aren’t exactly unprepared ourselves,” said Prue. “Maybe we haven’t been fighting evil as long as you did but we’ve learned a thing or two since we got our powers.”

“You mean your little spell and potion?” questioned Jessica. “Yes, I know all about those. Being clairvoyant has certain advantages over other powers. Like knowing what your enemies are up to without them knowing. The magic in Palmers’ book makes your little preparations ineffective. I knew you’d be coming back here. Before you arrived Palmer and I both took a special potion. One that makes us immune to your potions. It won’t last long but it will last long enough to finish you.

“As for your spell, I’m afraid that won’t do you any good either. You see Phoebe prepared a spell for a Dark Priestess. Only I’m not a Dark Priestess. And Palmer isn’t’ a Dark Priest, either. When I learned the truth about the power evil can give you and decided to pursue it instead of good I didn’t gain the powers of a Dark Priestess. I wasn’t powerful enough for that.

“That Dark Grimoire belonged to Palmers’ master, a true Dark Priest. He made the mistake of believing I wanted to follow him, too. Now, we have his magic, I’ll soon have my ancestor alive to tell me where the Tome of the Ancients is hidden, and you will be out of the way forever. And I will take my rightful place as mistress of all magic. Those who don’t swear loyalty to me will pay for their insolence.”

Prue just glared at Jessica. If she were telling the truth then all their preparations went for nothing. The spell wouldn’t affect either her or Stuart. The potion would prevent them from stripping the powers of these two warlocks. Stuart had all ready proven he was more powerful than they had first thought. And it was a safe bet that Jessica was also more powerful than she appeared.

“Oh, you’ll try something foolish, I’m sure,” said Jessica. “You won’t believe that we’re protected against your magic. But you’ll learn that everything I’ve told you is true. Unfortunately it will do you no good. By the way, I must thank you for the idea of enchanting your attic to prevent Palmer from blinking out. I took the precaution of preparing this chamber in the same manner. Neither of your White Lighters can orb out of this room. And the little charm you had to bypass to get down here? It was real enough. But it was also a ruse. To make you think you were safe. But you really don’t want to try going back up the stairs again. You wouldn’t care for the results.”

“You can’t harm us, you know that,” said George. “We’re immortal. Nothing you do will have any permanent affects against us. And you can’t keep us prisoner forever. Eventually we’ll escape. Once we do you’ll never be able to complete your plans. We’ll make sure of that.”

“You’re wrong,” said Jessica, pulling a vial out of her pocket. “Concentrated Dark Lighter poison. Courtesy of a Dark Lighter who thought he’d share in the spoils. Someone else who underestimated me. You see I’ve thought of everything. I’ve had a long time to prepare for this eventuality.”

Jessica formed an energy ball in one hand.

“You survived Palmer’s attacks the first time only because he didn’t use his full power against you,” said Jessica. “We had to make you believe he was serious about attacking you without causing any serious harm. You won’t be so lucky this time. Palmer, use the spell we discussed earlier. That should make it quick and relatively painless for the witches. Then we’ll deal with the White Lighters.”

She turned back to the sisters.

“I would suggest you not try anything stupid,” she said. “Dying by energy ball takes some time and I understand it is quite painful. The spell from the Dark Grimoire will simply drain your magic. You shouldn’t feel much. It’s a much more desirable way to die. Trust me, it’s easier this way. Very soon you will be reunited with Penny. Give her my regards when you see her.”

They all watch as Stuart smiled at them and then opened the Dark Grimoire to cast the spell that would end their lives.

TWENTY

As Stuart opened the Dark Grimoire and looked down to find the page with the spell he needed, the book suddenly burst into flames. Stuart screamed in pain and dropped the book as the flames engulfed his hands, setting them afire as well.

Jessica instinctively turned to see what Stuart was screaming at. She saw him screaming in agony trying desperately but vainly to put out the conflagration that was steadily spreading up his arms. She turned back toward the sisters intent on destroying them with the energy ball she held.

Prue reacted almost instantly. She reached out with her telekinetic power and took hold of the athame sitting on the table. Then she cast the dagger at Jessica. The weapon flew across the room embedding itself in Jessica’s chest all the way to the hilt. Jessica now began to scream in pain as flames erupted around her. Within moments the flames flashed and Jessica disappeared, the dagger falling to the floor.

Once again Prue used her telekinetic power on the athame sending it into Stuarts’ chest. He, too, died in the same conflagration that had vanquished Jessica. Piper quickly moved over and stamped out the flames that burned on the Grimoire. Then everyone turned looking at each other, confusion on their faces.

“What happened?” questioned Phoebe. “The book didn’t burst into flames when I looked through it.”

“I never thought I’d use what I learned in chemistry in college,” said Prue, picking up the athame.

“Chemistry?” questioned George.

“Yep,” said Prue. “I never cared for that class. But it was part of the required curriculum. So I did my best in the class and then forgot about afterwards. I never thought I’d have any use for it. Jessica wasn’t the only one who can set booby traps.”

“Wait a minute,” said Leo. “I don’t understand. What does chemistry have to do with this?”

“Did you know,” asked Prue, “that there are certain elements that, when you mix them together and expose them to the air, they become extremely volatile? I nearly set fire to the entire chemistry lab during one class. Boy, my professor was really pissed about that, too.”

“Is that what happened?” Piper questioned, picking up the still smoldering book.

“I just coated two opposing pages with each substance,” said Prue. “Then I closed the book. I knew the next time the book was opened they’d react like they did. And I used enough of both compounds to make sure the fire was a big one.”

“Pretty smart, sis,” said Phoebe. “I thought we were finished for sure. That’s why you just stood there when Palmer opened the Grimoire. I thought you might try to take it from him or something. Or that Piper would freeze him.”

“I couldn’t risk that Jessica might use that energy ball,” said Piper. “She said she was protected against our magic and I thought if I tried to do anything she’d just kill us.”

“At least this is all over now,” said Leo. “With Jessica and Stuart vanquished their plans died with them. George and I can make sure that all these items are destroyed so they will never fall into the wrong hands again.”

“I want to look through this,” said Piper, holding the Grimoire. “There might be something useful in it.”

“Only if you’re evil,” said George, taking the charred book. “Trust me, Piper, the only magic in this book is evil magic. Just looking through it might contaminate you. That’s why a high priestess destroys it if they get their hands on it. Leo’s right. All this needs to be destroyed. We have to make sure that nothing of it remains to tempt anyone else.”

“What about these?” Phoebe asked, looking over at the orbs in the cabinet. “You said they contained the souls of the victims. We can’t just leave them here like this.”

“Those orbs are actually very fragile,” said George. “We just need to release the souls so they can move on.”

“Everyone watch out,” said Prue.

Prue tapped into her telekinetic power once more and the doors to the cabinet flew open. Then the orbs inside the cabinet suddenly flew across the room, shattering on the far wall. The broken glass fell to the floor as the souls inside seemed to hover in midair for a moment. Then the souls simply faded from sight as if they had never existed.

“That should do it,” said Leo. “They’ll be at peace now.”

“Good,” said Prue. “Let’s get back to the manor. With Jessica and Stuart dead you should be able to orb out of the room. I’m going to build a nice big fire in the fireplace. And we have lots of stuff at the manor right now to feed it with.”

“I’ll join you in a bit,” said George. “I want to make sure we have everything.” He handed the Grimoire to Leo. “Make sure this is destroyed completely. When it is, take the ashes and scatter them somewhere where no one will ever be able to find them again.”

“Sure thing,” said Leo, taking the book.

“Come on, Leo,” said Prue. “Let’s get this done. The sooner everything is destroyed the better I’m going to feel.”

The girls all linked arms as Leo orbed them out of the basement. George began to systematically search the room, and then the entire house, to make sure nothing of the warlocks’ power remained.

TWENTY-ONE

Prue stirred the ashes in the fireplace checking to make sure that nothing remained. George had orbed in several times with boxes of items he had brought to be burned. Some of the items, he said, looked like normal, mundane things. But he wasn’t taking any chances. It had taken a while but eventually all of the items considered a danger in Jessica’s house were reduced to nothing more than bags of ashes. Leo began to fill another trash bag with the ashes.

“I don’t understand how Jessica didn’t know the Grimoire was trapped,” said Piper. “With her clairvoyance we couldn’t be sure if she was watching us or not.”

“I cast an obscurement spell on the attic,” said Prue. “She might have been able to counter it but would have taken her a few minutes. Long enough for me to coat the pages with the chemicals I had. Besides, I was pretty sure if she were watching the manor she’d be more interested in you or Phoebe. You were the ones preparing our defenses against her.”

“So, what do you think alerted Grams to Jessica?” Phoebe asked. “They were supposed to be good friends.”

“Probably this photo,” said George, picking up the one that showed Grams holding the athame. “I had forgotten but when Jessica moved back to Salem, Penny gave her that necklace as a going away gift. A reminder of where she had come from. Penny probably saw the photo and realized it wasn’t her in it. When she saw that necklace it wouldn’t have been hard for her to figure out who it was.”

“Why didn’t she just vanquish Jessica?” Prue asked. “She was a high priestess. She should have been powerful enough to do that.”

“She probably was,” said George. “But she probably suspected that Jessica was a Dark Priestess as we did. That would have changed the complexion of things. Penny would need to confront Jessica here at the manor, where she was the most powerful, to have any kind of assurance of success. That’s probably why she held onto those items instead of destroying them. Bait to bring Jessica here.”

“Then, Penny probably realized what Jessica was doing with the descendents,” said Leo. “And she must have realized that another innocent was about to be murdered. So she enchanted the attic to keep anyone out and went to save them.”

“She probably failed,” said George. “But she was able to get the athame from Stuart. That’s why the killings stop after Penny died. Jessica and Stuart didn’t have the athame and couldn’t get into the attic to get it. There was nothing they could do until Phoebe read that incantation from the Book of Shadows and broke the enchantment.”

“But they waited almost a year and a half after that,” said Phoebe. “Why so long?”

“She had no way of knowing when you’d find the book,” said Leo. “Even after you did, she probably didn’t realize it at first. It’s like when Piper’s cooking. She periodically checks whatever she has in the oven to see if it’s done. But she doesn’t stand there and constantly watch it.”

“So she’d use her clairvoyance to look in on the attic from time to time to see if we had found the Book of Shadows,” said Phoebe. “But since we never moved the chest it was in she probably figured it was still in there.”

“Right,” said George. “And she never realized the Book of Shadows was sitting on its pedestal in another part of the attic. If she had I’m sure she would have sent Stuart after it long before this.”

“Well, it’s all over now,” said Leo, tying up the last bag of ashes. He picked up four large trash bags containing the ashes of what they had burned. “I’ll just orb out to the middle of the Atlantic and drop these off. Once they sink to the bottom no one will ever find them again.”

“Don’t take too long,” said Piper. “Dinner is almost ready.”

“I won’t,” said Leo.

He then orbed out of the manor.

“George,” said Phoebe, “what about this Tome of the Ancients? Is it really as powerful as Jessica said it was?”

“More so,” said George. “No one knows for sure what’s in it. But she was right about it containing magic that’s been forbidden to humanity. It is known that the magic in it is so powerful that no human can be trusted with it.”

“Do you think Giles Corey really found out where the tome is?” Piper asked.

“Maybe,” said George, “who knows? At least it’s still hidden wherever it is. We can rest knowing that someone like Jessica won’t be getting her hands on it any time soon.”

“I told you Grams hadn’t turned,” Prue said to George.

“I know,” said George. “I’m glad you were right. A lot of what she did those last few months she was alive makes more sense now. She must have known about the Dark Lighter poison. That’s why she sent me away. To protect me from it. She knew if she told me what was going on I’d insist on helping her.”

“How did you get it back here, anyway?” Phoebe asked. “I thought just touching it would kill you.”

“It will,” said George. “But it was in that vial. Just like the power-stripping potion you had. The vial couldn’t hurt me. As long as I didn’t open it and get the poison on me, I was fine.”

“You were right, too, though,” said Prue. “Anyone can be turned evil under the right circumstances. It was my emotional attachment to Grams that wouldn’t let me believe she had turned. If it had been someone else I would probably have agreed with you.”

“Don’t apologize,” said George. “It was your stubbornness that helped put an end to all this. If you had just accepted that Penny had turned evil we might not have learned what Jessica was up to.”

“Prue Halliwell apologizing?” questioned Phoebe, a smirk on her face. “I have to write this down in my diary.”

“I apologize when I’m wrong,” Prue protested. “I’m just rarely wrong, that’s all.”

“She’s a Halliwell, all right,” said Piper, putting her arm in Prue’s. “Come on, big sister. Let’s go set the table for dinner. George, I’m setting a place for you, too. After all the help you’ve been a good meal is the least we can do for you.”

“Well, if the way Leo brags is any indication,” said George, “this will probably be the best meal I’ve had in a very long time.”

“Of course it is,” said Piper. “I’m not just a cook. I’m a chef. And a damned good one, too.”

“I’ll be right back,” said Phoebe.

“Where are you going?” Prue asked.

“I need to go upstairs and put my boots on,” responded Phoebe. “It’s starting to get pretty deep in here.”

Everyone just laughed and headed for the dining room to set the table for dinner.

The End

If you’ve enjoyed this story, you can find more “Charmed” stories at my website, http://www.geocities.com/killeenmale/. You can also post your own “Charmed” stories if you like to write fan fiction.

Jerry I finally caught up! I like how you make Prue out to be the hero! And her using her Chem class as a learning tool was awesome funny and ingenious at the same time! I love how you bring the girls into it more with George and show how human they can be with their love for Grams. Excellent story, Jerry!

Thanks for the high praise, Angie. I'm glad you enjoyed the story so much. I always try to give a few twists and surprises in my stories. I also try to make them to be real humans and not just paper characters. It's nice to know that actually comes through in my stories.

Jerry

It does! And you're welcome!