Title: Take The Fall

Author: Wicked R

Disclaimers: characters and the universe belongs to the WB.

"You can't bring an old friend into the house right now," Piper pulled her half sister into the kitchen with herself where she was pouring some juice into Wyatt's cup, "you can't think of reviving friendships when Leo is behaving so unpredictably. You don't know when he will release some lightning at a bookcase just because the order of the books annoys him."

"He's not as bad as that," Paige said incredulously. She was more used to Leo staring into a corner for hours at a time.

"He was this morning," Piper sighed, "I can't get through to him and Phoebe's competence at psychology is rather rhetorico-theoretic. And we can't take him to a proper therapist because well, how will the I am an angel comment sound? They'll lock him up, he'll orb out, and we're stuck with the same problem. I thought about it for a long time and I don't see any other way but asking the Elders for help."

"The Elders? I thought you hated them just as much as he does. Besides, they will find out about his second and third kill."

"Yes, but I'm afraid they will find out anyway if he does anymore. And he will, he can't control his exploding powers. They get exponentially stronger day by day. If it goes on like this, he will be invincible just like Cole was. Then what? I do want the Elders to punish him. I really hope they can take his powers away. Even if they lock him up somewhere…"

"Piper?"

"I can't trust him with giving the kids to him for two seconds. In fact, I started to place them as far from him as it is possible. They are upstairs with Phoebe at the moment. I wanna help him Paige, but I'm afraid of him. Sometimes I wonder if he even knows who I am. I wanted to ask you to orb up to the Elders and fill them in, so socialising is not…"

"I wasn't trying to socialise. I believe she is my innocent," Paige nodded towards the sitting room, where they left the visitor in the doubtful company of a rather mute Leo, "she was an old classmate of mines right enough, but we never talked more than two sentences in four years. I would've shown no interest in her now either if it wasn't for the police station I saw her at. Darryl's actually asking us to look into it. Diane is known as the clown. She keeps going back to the station religiously to convince people aliens abducted her. They investigated it and found that nobody could prove anything. They think she makes it up for attention. But I know she isn't. She was one of the most popular girls in school and even if she's not as successful in life as she was before, I really doubt she would make up something like this. She's either gone insane since the last time I saw her, or we have to believe her."

"Since when do you believe in aliens?"

"I don't. I did for a few years during my teenage days, but that's beside the point. She doesn't remember much, but from what she is telling me, the to and fros sound like a shimmer."

"And why would a demon want her for a little while and send her back all the time? It's not like their usual dealings."

"I don't know, but I would like to find out. She claims she can feel when the next abduction will happen and it is tonight. That tells me she would have some kind of powers she doesn't really know about. I told her we won't let anything happen to her today, or anybody harm her again."

"What is your plan?" Piper gave in, although her mind was still clouded over by the troubles of her immediate family. Leo deteriorated a lot in the last few weeks, and never acknowledged they would ever be able to change the future for Christopher, telling from the way Chris used to handle his fellow white lighter father. She tried to convince him of the time travel paradox, but he could wait a few hours if they had some witch work to do. Piper wasn't so keen on committing treachery on her husband even if it was for his own good herself, especially if it had to do with the Elders, it was a last resort.

"Only very powerful demons can do remote control shimmering of others. As far as we know, the underworld is currently lacking such power," Paige started.

"I'm sure somebody will have it by now. The way Leo's powers are escalating, I could imagine anything."

"But a powerful demon, let alone a possible leader would not do his dirty work himself. He would send someone to take Diane to him, and in that case, that particular demon would use cloaking. When my classmate starts to disappear, I suggest you blow the invisible person next to her up. Case solved."

"Or, alternatively, we anger somebody down there and he'll send a bunch of other demons after Diane. But hey, Leo would love that…he needs to place his energy somewhere. Better than him going after them all by himself. Although I'm not so sure about shooting in the dark at demons we don't know what they are capable of."

"Is there any difference to other situations? We never know what they are capable of, whether invisible or not."

"I said I don't work anymore!" They heard Leo's irritated voice from closer than what it should've sounded if he was sitting next to the conservatory, where they saw him closed into himself before they went out for a private talk.

Diane scrunched her eyebrows and was a little bit shaking her head when the sisters went back to join her, "I was just gonna say how they kicked me out from work as well when I couldn't account for my missing hours," she stepped next to Paige decisively, as if wanting to be as far from the man in the room as it was possible, "look, maybe coming here wasn't such a good idea after all. It was nice of you to show some compassion, especially after the way I treated you at school Paige, but I understand that it is hard to take my story seriously. I will not disturb you anymore," she peeped at Leo.

"Maybe you're right," Piper agreed, getting angry looks from Paige for it, "being here is not a good idea, if we want to catch the ones that kidnap you. Mainly because every dem…everybody who would do such thing knows by now that this is our house and it's not very likely they will attack here."

"But on the other hand, there's no risk of exposure here," Paige whispered in her sister's ear.

"No security system can stop them, I can assure you," Diane held, not sure if Paige's older sister or even Paige herself was buying her story at all, not the way they've been quietly talking to each other, apparently about her. They weren't alien fanatics after all, and so she couldn't really trust them, "besides, I know it will happen, I can sense it. I don't assume I'd be able to leave your house in the next minute or so and then you'll maybe able to see I hope…"

"What? The next minute?" Paige took her schoolmate's arm.

"I'm afraid that won't do either," Diane smiled at the gesture, but her eyes thanking her for trying nevertheless when her features started to get unclear with the vibration.

Piper followed her sister's earlier suggestion and aimed her arms at the air at Diane's other side, where presumably the demon should've been. The effect was immediate, the alleged alien abductee restabilised and the figure of a demon started to take shape just to be seen one second before being blown to pieces. But they have not been able to celebrate the small victory, because five other demons materialised immediately one by one, at different parts of the room.

The handsome, dark and young looking demon who appeared next to Diane raised one hand towards the oldest sister, neutralising Piper's attempt to deliver the demon the same fate as the one before received, "the witch is too important for us. Remember, we don't take chances," he grabbed the innocent, while the others formed a demonic wall in front of him.

"Horatio?" Leo took interest for the first time since getting back to his own thoughts after the visitor took the initiative to ask him some polite questions. He snorted, taking a few running steps towards them, then waved his hand with force as if he was giving someone a slap in the face with the back of his hand, making the four defending demons fall on their asses and get swiped to the one side, landing on top of each other so that Leo could look at the noble looking demon in charge of the operation, "you work for Barbas," stated the white lighter matter of factly, but with much determination.

"Not anymo…" The kidnapper managed before Leo's lightning hit him with a force that took the handsome creature all the way back to the wall and ignited him in the chest, burning from the inside out and exploding, vanquishing one more demon in the process and knocking Diane unconscious, with serious burns on her exposed skin.

When the rest of the demons retreated, Paige rushed to her side pulling out her mobile from the holder in her neck and punching in some numbers, not even considering Leo's presence, "hi. My name is Paige Matthews. I need an ambulance to…"

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"Thanks," Piper pressed the out button on her wire less, now having time for Paige, who orbed in a minute before, "that was Darryl. If it weren't for him, we would be in serious trouble again. Not that we aren't now…what did the Elders say?"

"It's the work of Sisyphus," Paige gestured.

"I agree. You get rid of one demon, or one leader of the underworld, there comes the other."

"No. I mean it was Sisyphus, the ancient demon himself who wanted Diane taken to harvest her powers. She could've been a powerful witch, if she was identified by us first, and not them. Point is, her powers can keep the stone in place on the top of the mountain."

"What stone?"

"Don't you know the story of Sisyphus? He's into abducting women you know. He once told one of his plans of such thing to Zeus, who punished him with the task of rolling up a stone on some mountain. But once he got the rock up, it always rolled down, so he had to do it all over again. But when it's kept on place by Diane's powers, he can engage in other activities, such as trying to control the underworld. I was told he is quite a powerful demon otherwise, just never had time to practice. And if he wants to continue with that, he will use Diane again."

"Phoebe put up a protector spell in her hospital room, but they won't risk exposure while she's there. I'm more worried about what they said about Leo."

"You won't like it."

"That was for certain from the start. I never like what they want with Leo. So?"

"They want him to prove himself. They are afraid of him. An Elder he isn't, at least not anymore. Nobody really knows what he's capable of, especially in this mental state. The plan is to see if he can challenge Sisyphus and if he doesn't mess up, they would allow him up there to try to calm his mind further."

"A perfect example of their no risk policy, huh?" Piper frowned, "well, tell them no deal. They help him now and then we will go together to face that ancient demon. This is our offer, otherwise we don't fight any other demons or do any favours for the Elders."

"Put the telly on!" Phoebe's voice came from upstairs where she was supposed to watch cartoons with the kids, "switch to CNN!"

Paige orbed the remote control to herself, "gotta go. Mylords rang upstairs," she bowed with an ironic frown, leaving Piper in the company of the news, and Phoebe, who just descended the stairs with a half asleep Wyatt in her arms.

"…the peculiar storm, that produced very little rain, and one enormous lightning," the telly blasted, as Paige didn't have time to adjust the volume, "made no allowances for the fact that the San Francisco hospital building was supposed to be lightning safe. The fire that resulted from the natural curse engulfed three storeys before emergency services could put a hold on it. The injured are being transported to two of the closest hospitals. The number of fatalities are not clear yet, but level five was most affected…"

"That is where Diane was," Phoebe supplied.

Paige rematerialised and orbed the remote control into her hands again, this time to press the red switch off button. When she slowly turned to face her sisters, her lips were trembling, her face was whiter than her usual pastiness and her expression was one between trepidation and concern, "Piper…what we talked about…Leo has already taken the assignment by himself when Sisyphus resurfaced himself to use Diane's powers in the hospital, instead of kidnapping her. Perhaps he wanted to make up for his mistakes…"

"Leo caused the fire?" Phoebe asked, quieter than she felt like it for the stupefaction that suddenly dawned on her, although in her heart of hearts she already knew it all had to do with her brother in law, that is why she asked her sisters to watch the news. But she still had the composure to restrain herself, as she didn't want to wake Wyatt up.

"Yes," Paige nodded, nervously pulling at her blouse, "she vanquished Sisyphus. Unfortunately he killed dozens of people in the process, including Diane…"

"We have to find him," Piper turned, ready for action, "Paige, sense him and orb over everywhere you can think of if you can't locate him," she referred to the underworld, to which Leo often resorted nowadays.

"No. Piper," Paige closed in on her, ready to either take her into her arms or restrain her from blowing the house up when she heard the news, "the Elders have already found him."

"What did they do with him?"

"They gathered their powers altogether to be able to counteract his and…"

"And what Paige, what?" Piper almost screamed now, impatiently, while Phoebe tried to calm down the wakened child, but moving closer to the other two herself, sensing the extreme negative emotion in Paige, and the same building up in Piper.

"He was a threat. They killed him," Paige whispered crying, watching Piper as she didn't do any of what she expected from her, but half sat, half fell down on the sofa, with her two sisters waiting for a reaction.

"There are not many death that are final in this family," she started towards the attic determined after a minute of thinking.

Tbc