The living room. A room for living in.

::Piper and Paige are orbed in by Leo. As Piper's hand lets go of Paige's, she gives her husband a small kiss on the cheek.::

"Thanks, sweetie. Where have you been all night anyway?"

"I'm just gonna head to bed, guys. It's pretty late."

::She watches their faces for reactions and is somewhat satisfied with those she receives.::

"Yeah, so... goodnight. Phoebe'll show up in the morning, no doubt. You know what she's like."

(Knowing my luck, that'll be some extrenuous bitch against her baby sister... why am I suddenly so bitter tonight? And that Kellan guy keeps flashing on my mind. Ugh. I need a boyfriend.)

::Paige leaves, heading to her bedroom.::

::Leo watched Paige go, nodding a goodnight to her, and now turns to his wife and smiles tightly at her.::

"I was just keeping an eye on things. I think, over the next few weeks, things are going to take a turn for the slightly more hectic side for you, as if it's not already. Still..."

(The Elders told me to keep quiet, so, better.)

"Let's go to bed, shall we?"

::Before Piper can utter a reply, he takes her in his arms and orbs her out to Piper and Leo's bedroom.::

::Kellan blinks in and takes a place on the couch, carefully examining his perfectly manicured nails::

::Paige orbs in with Vince, and smiles up at him.::

"You feeling okay?"

(Aw, makes me think of my first orb...)

::She gently lets go and sees Kellan on the couch, before jumping out of her skin.::

"Jesus, god!"

"Not quite, love, though my body has been compared to many a greek deity. I'm sure you remember me from the club. I know I remember you. Paige isn't it? You must be wondering what I'm doing here. I'll tell you this much. If you ever want to see you sister again, you won't want to try anything stupid."

::He looks over at Vince, his eyebrow raised.::

"The same goes for you 'Prince Charming'."

::Not quite knowing what to do, or whether she should believe him, Paige takes a step back and calls up the stairs.::

"Piper? Can you come downstairs please? Now?"

::All the while, her eyes do not leave Kellan.::

"Step back, Vince... we don't know what this guy's capable of."

::Leo runs in and sees Paige - sans his wife.::

"Piper's missing! I can't sense her anywhere!"

::He sees Kellan on the couch.::

"Who's this guy?"

::He falls silent, eyeing both Kellan and Vince warily.::

::Vince steps back from Paige, feeling slightly woozy after orbing, and then notices Kellan. He feels his hands icing up and he ignores Paige, deciding to stand slightly in front of her::

"What do we do then? And you? Don't look at me like that, I haven't done anything wrong."

::He glances at Leo with a look of annoyance and then swings his gaze back to Paige::

"Say a spell... or orb his shoddily manicured hands off."

(Are you CRAZY? This guy has my sister, for all I know, suspended on a rope above a pit of sharks, and you want me to attack him?)

::Paige grits her teeth and stays silent.::

"How do we know you're telling the truth?"

(And shut up Leo.)

::Kellan looks at Paige, amused::

"Quite frankly, love, you don't. Although, I typically believe a paniced man in his underwear."

::He gestures to Leo::

"Now you have two options. Try to kill me and lose your sister forever, or listen to my proposal. Which will it be?"

::Paige shifts her weight and looks at Leo with worry. Her face then smoothens out as her expression makes itself scarce. She stares at Kellan.::

"I'm listening."

::Kellan smiles a satisfied smile and leans back, his arms spreading over the back of the couch::

"It would seem that we each have something the other wants. I've got your sister, you have the most powerful magical tome known to man or immortal. Now, neither of us can simply take what we want, for various reasons. The deal is simple. I return your sister to you, unharmed, and you transfer your Book of Shadows, along with all it's powers, to me. How does that strike you?"

::Paige stares at Kellan, her eyes hard. She seems to take an awfully long time to think about it.::

"Leo, go to the kitchen, call Phoebe, and get her back here. In fact, just go get her."

::When Leo doesn't make a move, she turns and yells at him, her eyes glinting rage.::

"I said GO!"

::She then turns to Kellan.::

"I want to see her first, so I know you're not lying."

::Wordless, Leo orbs out towards wherever Phoebe is, which happens to be CW Apartments.::

"Do I look daft to you? To let you see her would be to give her to you. Don't think I don't know how many little tricks you have up your proverbial sleeves. Besides, you probably wouldn't recognize her regardless."

::He looks around for photos of a younger Piper. He sees one and gestures to it.::

"She bears a much stronger resemblance to that photo now, I'm afraid. Magic gone wrong and all that. Perhaps after I have the book I'll do something to bring her back to her old self. Or older, as the case may be. Now, make your decision, the book or your sister. This is getting boring and I do have better things to be doing."

::Leo orbs in with Phoebe, having explained to her what was going on on the way.::

::Phoebe charges up to Kellan, rage and semi-hidden fear in her eyes.::

"What have you done with her?"

::She turns to look at Paige uncertainly, then back at Kellan.::

"Where the hell is my sister?"

::Kellan looks up a Phoebe, amused. He then looks around her to Paige::

"Oy, red, you want to get this... strumpet off of me? One bat of an eye and I'm gone. Just a twitch and your dear sweet sister is no more. Do you understand me love? Now, what will it be? I really don't see this being that difficult a decision."

"Phoebe!"

::Paige lurches forwards and yanks Phoebe back. She takes a breath and sighs.::

"He has Piper. He wants the Book."

(The Book, the Book, they all want the Book... I'm just so impressed that they all know we HAVE a Book!)

"He does? Wow, that's so impressive! Impressive plan you came up with too, Mister Demon Sir!"

::Looks like Petunius' spell hasn't quite worn off then.::

"So we need to give you the Book and you give us Piper? Impressive. A trade. We've never been in this situation before."

::Narrowing her eyes, she walks right over to Kellan and picks him up by his shirt, forcing him to stand, and brings his face towards her.::

"Look, asshole, like I just said, we've been through this many times, and as you can see, each and every time we've come out laughing, and the fool who crossed us has come out dead. So you can either give us back our sister, or you can end up just like all the rest have."

::She shoves him backwards and takes a few steps away.::

"So what's it gonna be?"

::Petunius slowly and carefully shuts the door and stands by the wall in the hallway, out of sight from all those in the living room. He manages to hear Phoebe's voice, clearly still impressed by something.::

(Stupid ass spell.)

::His ears then perk up when he hears her mention something about a book, curious at all the bruhahaha.::

(Okay, maybe he's a really, really dedicated librarian and he just happened to pass this place on his way home...)

::A warlock blinks into the living room, still hidden from everyone else like Petunius. He spies the warlock killing witch in front of him and then makes a grabbing motion at the large grandfather clock nearby. It flies into the air and speeds towards Petunius::

"VENGEAAAANCE!"

::Petunius sees something appear out of the corner of his eye and then turns to fully face it, when he is confronted by the flying timepiece. His eyes widen and he dives out of its way, leting it smash into the wall. He looks up at his assailant and realises in shock that it's the same warlock from P3.::

"What the fuck? Haven't I vanquished you somewhere before?"

"A warlock walks into a bar..."

::The warlock charges up an energy ball and twists it around in his hand, while staring at Petunius::

"And finds his twin brother dead. Then a witch dies. Ba. Boom. Cha."

::He hurls it at Petunius::

::Petunius holds out his hand this time defensively as the warlock charges up the energy ball. The blue forcefield instantly surrounds him, almost anticipating the oncoming attack. As it is launched, the shield devours the projectile with ease, almost as though it were alive and hungry for more.::

"What, do they manufacture you people on a factory line or something? Same tired old jokes. Same tired old powers. I'd ring quality control if I were you."

"I did. They sent me after you."

::The Warlock gestures at the bits of broken clock and launches them telekinetically at Petunius::

::Petunius quickly lowers the shield, grabs the door open and gets on the other side of it in order to use it as a shield against the non magical attacks. A shard of glass grazes his wrist and he winces for a moment as the rest of the debris smashes into the door relatively harmlessly. He steps back in front of it and looks at the warlock, taunting him.::

"Aww, poor warlock not got any real power that he has to resort to flinging shit at me? That's pretty sad."

::He grabs two athames out of his coat pockets and chucks them with deadly accuracy, both aimed at each of the warlock's lungs.::

::The Warlock tks both athames back at Petunius::

"The shit has hit the fan."

::Petunius shimmies out of the athames' way then runs towards the warlock. He jumps and grabs onto a support beam near the living room and swings both legs quickly at the warlock's jaw in a way that the force will send him flying into Kellan.::

::The Warlock sails towards Kellan, sparking up two energy balls and throwing them back at Petunius before hitting the smarmy 'english' warlock::

"Ow."

::Kellan looks at the ridiculous warlock with utter exasperation and distaste. He stands up, fury in his face.::

"ENOUGH!"

::He then proceeds to throw a series of large, point blank fireballs at the other warlock, still on his back on the floor. After he's sorted, he straightents his hair and looks up at Phoebe and Paige.::

"Look, bitch. I don't care what you've faced in the past. I'm like nothing you've ever seen before. Now, make your decision. Your sisters life or your book. NOW."

::Petunius raises the forcefield once again and absorbs the warlock's energyballs and watches as he is slammed with fireballs by Kellan. He then looks at him, then Phoebe, Paige and Leo, the forcefield around him still shimmering. He focuses on Phoebe in particular, at a loss of words.::

"I...uh...the warlock...um..."

::The Warlock protects himself against the fireballs and telekinetically bounces them away::

"Excuse me, we're on the same side. But if you want to play it that way..."

::He waves his arm at Kellan and sends him flying into a small table::

"Now... VENGEAAAAAANCE!"

::He ignores Vince, Paige and Phoebe, instead looking over at Petunius. He ignites an energy ball and throws it over::

::Petunius absorbs yet another energy ball from the warlock with his still shimmering and still outstretched forcefield.::

"You're kind of in a losing battle. Your powers obviously aren't doing me any damage. If anything, they're making my shield stronger. Now you can give up and get the hell back to wherever you came from or you can share the same fate as your brother."

::He looks to the others and focuses on Phoebe again, then back at the warlock before reaching into his pocket and taking out two potions to induce temporary paralysis and throwing them at the warlock.::

::The Warlock stops the potions in mid-air with a burst of tk from his eyes, then pulls one towards him, into his hand, and sends the other straight back at Petunius::

"I could say the same thing to you. Minus the brother part. Your powers have done such a lot to harm me. So did the athames and the potions. You're a really good witch."

::He watches the potion reverse couse and hopes it'll work::

::Petunius tries to move out of the way of the potion bottle but it is too late. The forcefield flickers off and the potion bottle hits him straight in the middle of his chest. He looks down at it, then at the warlock again, expecting something to happen.::

[Tut tut, Petunius, you should know better than to throw potions at a telekinetic warlock! You are paralysed for ten posts following this one, then you will be able to move again.]

::Totally bewildered by what's been going on, all at once, Phoebe finally snaps out of it and spots the athame the warlock had thrown. While the warlock is preoccupied with Petunius, she marches up behind him and plunges the dagger square between the shoulder blades.::

"A warlock walks into the Charmed Ones' home."

::As the warlock screams and bursts into flame, she watches the athame drop to the floor.::

"And whaddya know. He dies."