Listening to her sisters arguing in the front of the SUV, Piper slid down in her seat and sighed. What was she doing here, listening to this? If they didn't stop soon, she was sure that her head would explode, and with it, her new power might blow something up.
She twisted around in her seat to try to find something in the landscape to help take her mind off of the noise in the front of the car. What she saw didn't make her feel any better, though. A swirling black shape, reminiscent of the Woogieman seemed to be following the car. Quickly she sat up, and rubbed her eyes, she didn't want to make a scene with her sister's if she was just seeing things. The shadow was still there.
"Uh, guys," she said, nervously, leaning forward between the seats, to see her sister's better. "Don't look now, but there seems to be a large black shadow thingy following us." As she spoke, Prue, turned the car onto the Golden Gate Bridge, and they began to cross it. Upon, hearing Piper's words, she glanced quickly in the rear view mirror, but didn't see anything.
"A shadow, Piper, are you sure?" Prue asked, checking her side mirror this time. Still, nothing.
"Yes, I'm sure, it was right," Piper turned around to point out the shadow to her sisters, but to her dismay (or relief) it wasn't there.
"Well, maybe there was something following us, but it's gone now," ventured Phoebe. "We better hurry up and get back to the house, though, just in case there is something after us." Prue agreed, and began steering the car toward home.
Upon entering the house, the three sisters made right for the attic.
"So what exactly did this shadow look like Piper? Was it like one of those lost souls, or more like the Woogieman?" Prue asked, trying to get a handle on what it was that Piper had seen.
"The Woogieman." Piper answered, going over to the BOS. "And it was definitely following us." She informed her sister's, putting on her resolve face, so that they wouldn't stop to question her further about what it was that it was doing.
Phoebe opened the book to the section on Shadows that she had been looking through recently. It turned out that the Woogieman was just one type, and they came in many. The one that she least wanted to meet up with was a Guardian at the Gate. They appeared when you had a dilemma, and needed to make a decision. They would feed on your insecurities, until you couldn't make up your mind about anything at all. Worst of all, the only way to get rid of them was to reach out and give it a good hard shove. ICK!
Phoebe showed her sisters what she had discovered on Shadows, and Piper tried to figure out if any of these fit the description of the one that she had seen. Since most Shadows came after someone for a reason, usually a weakness, the sisters had to figure out which one of them it was after, and why.
"Well, Piper," said Prue, closing the book with a yawn, after many hours of searching for an answer, "You were the one who saw it, so it must be after you."
"Well, than why did it suddenly fly away as soon as I went to point it out to you? Maybe it's after one of you, and doesn't want you to see it." Piper returned, defensively. Things were just starting to get under control for her, TPTB hadn't taken Leo away, and she was finally learning to have some control over her power. She didn't need a Shadow coming after her right now.
"Well, maybe, we're going about this all wrong," said Phoebe thoughtfully.
"Maybe what Piper saw wasn't evil at all. Maybe it was just a common everyday Shadow. Or maybe she was just seeing things. Well, I'm sorry Piper, but you have been working kind of hard lately. And you said yourself that you didn't get very much sleep last night," Phoebe tried to hide from the stern look on Piper's face.
"I know what I saw." Was all that Piper would say, however, and they finally gave up, and went downstairs to get some sleep.
The next morning, however, on her way to the club, Piper became aware of the same Shadow, following her again. She gripped the steering wheel hard, and tried not to give into panic. She so totally didn't need this. There was inspector coming to P3, and she wasn't totally sure of the job the crew had done cleaning up the night before. She stepped harder on the gas pedal, hoping to outrun it, and flinched as sheets of water, from a puddle that she had just driven through, splashed against the sides of her car. When she pulled into her parking spot, at P3 a minute later, the Shadow was gone. Piper looked around her, apprehensively, and then shook her head. Maybe Phoebe was right. Maybe, she HAD been working too hard. She went back to work, but was having a hard time keeping the Shadow out of her head. Piper was sure that she saw the Shadow again on her way home for lunch, and again on her way back to the club that evening. But each time, it would disappear as quickly as it had come. She felt a little sheepish, telling her sisters about it, since it kept disappearing like that, and so she decided to wait and see if anyone else saw it first. Or, if it decided to try and pull something.
Her sisters weren't totally sure what was going on, but they both noticed that Piper wasn't herself that evening. She was quiet, and withdrawn, and jumped at the slightest things. Whenever they tried to talk to her about it, though, she would just shrug, and say, "This isn't the place."
Finally, the next day, after seeing the Shadow, three more times, Piper broke down, and told her sisters. They weren't too happy that she had been keeping this from them.
"Piper, I'm really surprised at you. I mean, I would expect this sort of thing from Phoebe (Hey!), but not from you. You know better than to keep something like this from us. What if you'd been hurt?" Prue was torn between being very angry with Piper, and being very concerned. Piper was curled up in a corner of the couch, hugging a pillow, like a little girl. It had been a long time since they had seen Piper so freaked about something. Usually she was a lot more vocal when something was bothering her.
"That's just it," Piper answered, "I wasn't even sure if I was seeing it. It kept disappearing on me. If it had tried to attack me or something, I would have known for sure that it was real, and then I would have told you about it. But, you know, Phoebe had pointed out that I was working harder," Prue shot Phoebe and evil look. Phoebe just ducked her head and grinned, "so I thought that that might be all that it was." Piper finished, staring hard at her lap. "I thought that maybe I was going crazy," she whispered, as tears began to drop off of her cheeks. Prue and Phoebe both got up to hug her.
"You're not going crazy," Prue declared. "In fact, you are one of the sanest people I know. Now, have you told Leo about any of this? What does he say?" Piper just shook her head.
"Leo's been away at some Whitelighter thing. And I didn't want him to worry. I don't want his bosses to think that I'm going to pull him away from his other work, and distract him with stuff that might just be all in my head."
"Well, call him now, or I will," Phoebe told her, "You've let this go on much too long now."
"LEO!" All three of the sisters looked toward the ceiling and called. It was only a minute before he orbed in.
"You don't have to yell," he began, but seeing Piper, crying on the couch, he stopped, and went over to her. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He looked her over anxiously, and was relieved to find that she was alright. It only took a few minutes, for the girls to fill him in on what had been going on. He nodded, thinking it over.
"Well, it sounds like whatever this Shadow is, it's definitely after you, Piper. Have you guys been able to figure out what type it is? It's not a Guardian of the Gate is it?"
"No, we haven't been able to yet. Although the way that it's been flitting in and out might be a clue. It could be trying to make you paranoid, questioning your sanity." Prue said thoughtfully. "Let's go check the book.
Although from now on, Piper, you aren't leaving this house without one of us with you."
The next day, Prue was as good as her word, she went with Piper to the store, to the club, to the dry cleaners, and there wasn't one sign of the Shadow.
"Damn this rain," Prue grumbled, as she stepped in a puddle. "This is so one of the drawbacks of living in San Francisco. Why can't we live somewhere where it's warm and sunny all the time?"
"I don't know. But, you know, I kind of like rain. I think I'd miss it if it wasn't around," returned Piper, who was beginning to take a hopeful look at things, again, even rain. "Still no sign of the Shadow Demon though, maybe it was all in my head."
"No chance," said Prue, shaking her head. "It's probably just waiting for you to be alone." She linked her arm with Piper's. "And I'm afraid that we are just going to have to disappoint it."
The next day the rain had let up, and it was such a beautiful day, that Phoebe convinced Piper that a jog was in order, "To clear you head. Chase away any shadows." Phoebe grinned at her big sister, and then ducked as a dish towel flew at her head. The two started off, splashing each other occasionally in the puddles that were left over from yesterday's rain showers. At one point, running up hill, Piper happened to catch of glimpse of the Shadow.
"Phoebe! There, there it is!," she cried, continuing to run, trying to put some distance between herself and it. Phoebe turned, and had her first glimpse of the Shadow.
"Yow, it really does look like the Woogieman, doesn't it," she panted, as they reached the top of the hill.
"You can see it, oh I'm so relieved, I really thought I was losing it," Piper sighed with relief and splashed down hard into a puddle. She turned around to run backwards for a few yards to watch the Shadow, and see what it would do, and watched it dissipate as soon as it got to the puddle. She blinked, and then looked to Phoebe, to see if she had seen the same thing.
"Where'd it go?" Asked Phoebe, looking confused, and further relieving Piper. So it was playing vanishing games with her.
"Come on," Piper said, grabbing Phoebe by the arm, "We better get back to the Manor and let Prue, and Leo know what we saw." The two sisters turned and jogged back to the Manor.
"Ok, so you ran through a puddle, and when it tried to follow you it disappeared?" Leo asked for what seemed like the thousandth time.
"YES!" Piper and Phoebe said together. They were starting to get a little annoyed with him. Leo held up a hand, asking them to be patient, it was obvious that he was working something out in his mind.
"And the first time that you saw it Piper, it disappeared, where?" he asked.
"Um, lemme think, on the Golden Gate Bridge, why?"
"Because I think that you are one very lucky girl, that's why," he answered, looking at her in concern.
"Leo, please explain what you're talking about, so the rest of us can catch up," put in Prue, who had been trying hard to be patient, but wasn't very good at that sort of thing.
"Well, crossing water can neutralize evil. That's why the shadow keeps pulling these disappearing acts on you, Piper. Every time you managed to cross water, even a puddle, it dissipated. The fact that it keeps coming back though, means that that is one hell of an evil Shadow. You better check the BOS and figure out what kind, so you can get rid of it fast." With that, the four of them trooped up the stairs to the attic once more.
About an hour later, Phoebe finally happened on the clue.
"You're not going to like this Piper, but I think it's the only way," she said, looking apprehensively at her sister.
"Phoebe, at this point, I don't care what the hell I have to do, I just want to get rid of this thing," Piper answered, feeling more tired than she could ever remember feeling.
"Well, apparently, with Shadows, knowing their name gives you a power over them. And that if you summon it, you can ask it it's name. But you have to be very direct with it. If you are, it will tell you, not only what it's name is, but what you have to do to get rid of it. Apparently, Shadows are formed by our weaknesses. If this one Shadow belongs just to you, than it's feeding off your weakness. Once you confront it, it'll go away." Piper paled, as she listened to Phoebe. Confront it? Summon it?
"You must be out of your mind," she told Phoebe.
"I told you you wouldn't like it," Phoebe returned.
"Ok, ok, I don't think we really have a choice here. This thing is just going to keep on getting stronger until it uses your weakness to take over your body, like the Woogieman did with Phoebe. God, Shadows are the weirdest things, they're so easily defeated, and yet, if you let them, they can really get out of control," Prue shook her head, remembering the Woogieman, in detail.
"Ok," Piper sighed, resigning herself to her fate, "what do I have to do to summon this thing?"
An hour later, they had reassembled in the attic with all of the tools which they would need. Prue, Phoebe, and Leo sat off to one side of the attic, more for moral support than anything else, but ready to jump in in a second, if something were to go wrong. Piper sat in the middle of a circle, drawn in chalk on the floor. She lit three white candles, and held an emerald in her left hand. She concentrated hard on the Shadow, and the peace that it was robbing her of. Within seconds, it had appeared.
The indrawn breaths of her sisters and husband would have been enough to let Piper know that the Shadow was there, even if the room hadn't suddenly become icy cold. She opened her eyes to see the Shadow floating in front of her. It looked much bigger up close than she had originally thought, and for a second, she felt that she just couldn't go through with this. But looking at Prue, Phoebe, and Leo, silently cheering her on, she knew that she could. Taking a deep breath, she asked it, "Who are you?" in her coldest tone of voice. Piper gasped as the answer sounded, deep inside of her brain. "I am the Guardian of the Gate, I am the Shadow, push against me." Push against that? Piper thought. I can't push that, there isn't anything to push, it's just a Shadow. Still, she reached out, and put her hand against it. It was ice cold, and felt like taffy. It was easier to push on than she had originally thought, and suddenly an over whelming urge to shove that thing as far away from her as she could get came over her. She pushed with all of her strength, and the Shadow vanished. Without stopping to think, Piper, jumped to her feet and raced downstairs to wash her hands.
"Ick, ick ick, icky icky, ick," she murmured under her breath, as she ran her hands under the hot, soapy water. Moments later, Leo, Prue, and Phoebe, burst into the bathroom behind her.
"Piper, are you alright?"
"It vanished! What happened?"
"You did it! I knew you could!" All three of them were talking at once, but Piper barely heard them. A strange sense of peace had settled over her, as well as a feeling of wholeness that she hadn't had for a long time. Tossing the soap into the air, she froze it. Grinning, she then flicked her wrist in the other direction and blew it to bits. Her sisters shrieked as they were covered with the soapy bits, but Piper just grinned. The Guardian at the Gate, had given her control over both her powers.
