Chapter 5

"How do you know about this?" Buffy asked pointing towards the book.

"So this is you, you are the vampire slayer?" Leo asked after watching her reaction to the book.

Buffy didn't know what to do, lie, tell the truth, scream, run? Why was everything so complicated?

'Hang on, why do they have a book that specifically references Slayer's?' Buffy thought suddenly.

"Even if I was I'm not anymore." Buffy quietly replied with a look of anger and sadness mixed together.

"What do you mean anymore? If you were called as a slayer you can't be un-called, the only way to stop being the slayer is to die!" Leo replied confusedly, not seeing the danger of his statement.

"I left, I ran!" Buffy shouted as she jumped up from her place on the sofa. "I lost something and I will never get it back all due to being called as the slayer. So I ran!"

At that point Piper had had enough of the sadness and anger radiating from the young girl so she jumped up and pulled her into a tight embrace as Buffy broke down in tears. Piper maneuvered herself and Buffy so they could sit back down on the sofa, while Piper glared at her husband.

"Nice going Leo!" Paige snapped watching as this young girl sobbed into Piper's shoulder.

"Shh, Buffy its okay, it's okay." Piper repeated soothingly until the sobbing started to subside about ten minutes later.

"I'm sorry Piper, I didn't mean…"

"Now don't apologise to me, I'm just glad you are okay." Piper interrupted Buffy before she could continue.

"Umm… I have a question." Buffy said sitting up clearing the last few tears from her face "How do you know about vampires, demons and slayers?"

The sisters and Leo looked at each other remembering that she didn't know who they were and it was clear they were all thinking should they tell the truth. But unfortunately Buffy noticed the looks as she had done the same thing about half an hour previous.

"Oh no don't go giving that look!" Buffy said suddenly pointing towards them.

"What look?" Phoebe said innocently

"The 'should-we-tell-the-truth-or-pretend-that-we-are-completely-normal-and-just know-random-stuff' look!" Buffy replied.

"Wow, there's a look for that?" Leo asked after deciphering what Buffy had meant.

"Yes! You know what I am so I want to know what your story is, and why I'm not seriously injured or dead?" Buffy finished after remembering she had been bitten by that vampire and now there wasn't even a mark.

"Well, to keep it simple, we're witches." Phoebe said from her place behind the sofa. When Buffy heard the word 'witches' she tensed as her experience with magic in the past hadn't exactly been brilliant.

"Witches" Buffy said hesitantly," As in go-psycho-and-swap-bodies-with-young-girls-ensoul-vampires-and-mess-with-peoples-lives witches?"

"Um… not completely sure what you're talking about but we are good!" Phoebe stated firmly "We're the Charmed Ones and we each have individual powers."

"What so you are all these Charmed witches then?" Buffy asked looking at them each confusedly.

"All except Leo" Paige replied, while Buffy turned to look at Leo.

"What are you then?" She asked

"I'm a little complicated but I will explain once the girls have finished." He replied

"Ok… so powers, what type of powers?" Buffy asked excitedly.

"Well I have the power to freeze time and to blow things up basically, its something complicated about slowing down or speeding up molecules." Piper replied first, Buffy's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Seriously, blow things up? Can you show me?" Buffy asked shyly. Piper looked around her and saw some paper on the table, screwed one piece up and threw it in the air. Once it was airborne she flicked her hands and the paper exploded and nothing was left.

"Cool!" Buffy exclaimed "That was amazing! What can you two do?" She asked turning to face Phoebe and Paige, who both laughed at the undisguised childish excitement on Buffy's face. Paige answered first.

"I can call things to me and I can orb." She answered but the answer only caused confusion for Buffy.

"Orb?" Buffy asked. Instead of explaining it Paige thought that it would be best just to show therefore she disappeared in a swirl of blue lights and appeared on the other side of the living room.

"Orbing." She said, while Buffy's eyes went wide "And when I call things they come to me in the swirl of blue lights."

"That would come in handy so often back ho…" Buffy stopped herself before she could mention home and feel homesick again. Piper noticed the slip up and placed her hand on Buffy's knee comfortingly. Buffy smiled gratefully at Piper before placing a smile back on her face and turning to Phoebe. Knowing what Buffy wanted Phoebe continued with the show and tell.

"Well to be honest my powers are not quite as interesting or visual as Pipers' or Paige's but I have the power of premonition and I can levitate." And with that she lifted herself about 2 feet of the ground.

"I still think that is pretty damn awesome." Buffy replied still trying to digest everything that had happened tonight. "But that still doesn't explain why I am not dead and, I know you are the Charmed Ones or something, but what does that mean?"

"Well maybe Leo should explain the 'not dead' thing as that was him." Piper said looking at her husband with a smile.

"I'm a whitelighter." He answered vaguely and continued when the only response from Buffy was blank stare. "A whitelighter is basically an Angel for good witches and future whitelighters. We guide, train and protect our charges. We have the power to orb and to heal."

When Leo had mentioned Angel a small stab of pain and sadness shot through her but here and now was not the time to lose it so she continued to listen. When Leo had finished talking some of the confusion faded.

"So you healed me?" Buffy asked putting her hand to her neck.

"Yes, Paige orbed you back from the cemetery and I healed you."

"Wait, you said whitelightys had the power to orb, how come Paige can orb?" Buffy asked

"Whitelighters, and Paige can orb because she is half whitelighter." Leo replied wincing at Buffy's mincing of the title.

"Oh so are you all half whitelighter?" Buffy asked trying to piece together some things, considering they were all sisters.

"Well, no, maybe we should start from the beginning." Piper said finally, thinking it would be easier.

"Phoebe and I didn't know that we were witches until about five years ago, and well Paige didn't know until two years ago." Piper saw Buffy was about to interrupt but held her hand up "You will understand, trust me.

"The truth is that we didn't even know that Paige was our sister until then either. The main fact is that we are the Charmed Ones, the three most powerful good witches in the world. We gained our powers five years ago when our grandmother died and me, Phoebe and Prue were all back together in the manor." Piper looked to Buffy and saw that she was confused

"Prue was our older sister." Phoebe answered sadly and Piper cast her eyes downwards. "She was killed two years ago."

"I'm sorry" Buffy said looking at the sisters.

"Prue had the power of telekinesis and astral projection and when she died the power of three died with her as well. Or so we thought" Piper said smiling at Paige. "When Prue died I didn't think I would be able to go on, if it hadn't been for Phoebe or Leo I would never have stopped trying to bring her back. I was casting a 'too call a lost witch' spell and it obviously had some effect on Paige as she turned up to Prue's funeral and Phoebe had a premonition of the demon that had killed Prue killing Paige."

"I was adopted and I never knew anything about magic or demons or anything, but I had always been open to it. I turned up to the funeral with no idea why I was there, or why I felt drawn to Piper and Phoebe although I had never met any of them before." Paige said and continued Piper's story. "I was with my boyfriend and we went up to a rooftop and suddenly this demon appeared and threw something at me and next thing I knew I had orbed out of the way, I had no idea what was happening, so naturally I freaked out!"

"I was watching from a different building and saw it happen, I was so confused!" Phoebe replied leaving Cole out of the story because it hurt and angered her to think about him. "To cut the long story short, Paige came to the manor and when we were once again all together near the book Paige gained her witch power. And, well here we are two years on." Phoebe finished.

"Umm… okay I get most of it." Buffy said finally "But I still don't get why only Paige has the whitelighter power."

"Oh that's because my father was a whitelighter but Pipers', Phoebes' and Prues' wasn't." Paige replied "Our mother had an affair with her whitelighter and because it was forbidden they gave me up for adoption."

"Ah okay I think I'm keeping up, one more thing though. You mentioned a book, do you mean that?" Buffy said pointing towards the book of shadows.

"Oh this" Piper said picking up from the table and closing it showing the triquetra on the front. "This is our family legacy; this is the Book of Shadows.

"This book has been passed down through the family since our ancestor Melinda Warren, the first witch in our family, about 300 years ago. Every time a new demon, evil creature, good creature, spell or whatever was discovered it was put in the book so that it could be a reference for future generations." Piper finished and put the book on the table once again.

"Wow, that would have made research nights so much easier in Sunnydale." Buffy said without thinking and then suddenly felt very homesick once again.

"Buffy, are you alright?" Piper asked.

"Yeah I just don't really like thinking about home." Buffy replied. Phoebe, Paige and Leo realised that they may be here for a while longer and took various seats around the living room.

"Maybe you should tell us what happened to you now." Piper said gently.

"Yeah, you're right" Buffy agreed with a long sigh "It all started when I was fifteen and my life changed…"

Quite long chapter if I say so myself… sorry if some things are wrong but its 1:30am and I'm pretty tired but I wanted to get this chapter out… Please tell me what you think and I will try and get the next chapter out as quick as possible…

The next chapter: Buffy explains her story to the sisters…

CharmingStar