Charmed: Let Gorgons Be Gorgons

by Paul Ruditis

  Once they reached the spot opposite where the river was widest, they could no longer hug the wall and stick to the shadows. This was the point of no return. They had to clear the distance to the river and back without attracting Cerberus’s attention. With three heads maintaining vigil in every direction, it would be impossible.

  Cole felt the water bottle pressing against his hand. He looked down to see that Coop was trying to hand it to him. When he looked back up, Coop motioned to himself, then the hellhound. Then he motioned to Cole with the water bottle. Once again, Cole had to give him credit. The Cupid was suggesting that he’d distract the dog while Cole got the water. Brave of him, but not very wise. The scent of Cupid magic in Coop would set Cerberus off. It was only luck that the dog hadn’t honed in on it yet and ripped him to shreds.

  While few members of the good magical community ever made it down to the Underworld, Cole doubted any of them made it this far. If Coop got any closer to that dog than he already was, it would tear him apart. But the scent of a dead former demon who had been lost in the void between life and death? That might just confuse Cerberus long enough to do the trick.

  Without a word, Cole backed away. Coop’s eyes went wide in warning as he realized what Cole intended, but the former demon moved too quickly for him. Cole was off and running for Cerberus before Coop could stop him.

  The hellhound honed in on his strange scent as all three heads turned in Cole’s direction. Cole shifted course. Instead of running for the dog, he made his way toward the river. A quick glance back was all it took to see that Coop was already on his way as well. All Cole needed to do was keep the dog busy. But how?

  Cerberus leapt toward him, bounding across the distance faster than Cole had anticipated the large creature could move. Boulders crushed under the beast’s feet while Cole quickly calculated his odds and his options.

  The odds were bad. The options were few.

  Actually, there was only one.

  The snarling, drooling beast with three heads was almost on top of him, but Cole waited. He waited until he could see three sets of bloodshot eyes. He waited until he could smell the rancid breath. He waited until the moment Cerberus started to pounce, and then Cole made himself disappear in a blink. Two of the three heads slammed into the ground he’d been standing on a half-second earlier.

  When Cole reappeared he was looking at the creature’s hindquarters. Luckily this end only had one set, not three. And a long serpent-like tail that Cole hadn’t anticipated. It whipped across the air wildly, as Cerberus tried to regain its footing. Cole jumped the tail once, but missed it on its return. It clocked him in the head, sending him tumbling down to the ground

  Once Cole could see clearly again, he didn’t enjoy the view. Cerberus was fine. Standing tall on its feet again. All three heads, panting for breath, loomed large right above him.

  Before Cole could determine where to send himself again, a pink flash of light burst through the dimly lit cavern, pulling Cerberus’s attention. Two of the three heads twisted, while the third stayed focused on Cole. Whether the heads shared one brain or had three, Cole could see some kind of conflicted thought behind the eyes of the head staring at him.

  The creature’s legs blocked Cole’s view of Coop, but he could see the flashes of pink glow all around them. And he felt the love too. Coop wasn’t just tempting the beast away with a light show. He was making sure Cerberus knew what a tasty treat he would be. A Cupid in the Underworld was probably better than any old rawhide former demon that maybe didn’t have much of a magical scent any longer.

  Cerberus was gone after another pink flash, leaving only a trail of drool behind.

  The beast bounded toward Coop as Cole tried to figure out what to do. If he let Coop die in the Underworld, Phoebe would kill him all over again. This time he was pretty sure it would stick.

  Cole stood, but stopped himself from doing anything rash. The Cupid was a big boy. He could take care of himself. Cole just had to trust that Coop had a better plan than he’d had when he faced down Cerberus.

  Cole watched as the hellhound bore down on Coop and then sailed right into the River of Styx with a huge splash. Coop was suddenly gone. Cole feared that the beast had taken him in as well, until he felt a tap on his shoulder.

  “Good plan you had,” Coop said. He’d used the exact same teleporting trick as Cole. “I’ve found the easiest ones work best.”

  Cole felt relief wash over him. At least now there was nothing he had to explain. “Did you get the water?”

  Coop held up the bottle. Murky water from the River Styx sloshed around inside. Cole was glad that he wasn’t the one that had to drink it. “We can pick up the crystal goblet from Kama and figure out our next move.”

  “Our next move is to jam it down Dafydd’s throat.” Cole saw the wet three-headed dog pulling itself out of the river behind Coop. “Actually, our next move should be getting out of here. Now.”

  Coop looked around. “Can we?”

  “We can.” Cole was glad that the same magic that kept anyone from materializing near the river didn’t stop them from getting away from it. He and Coop disappeared as the hellhound shook itself dry.

  Chapter 23

  “Were the gorgons there? Did you miss them?” Prue asked as her sisters appeared in the living room. She almost missed seeing them because they had orbed in on the other side of her new statue garden. She had to weave her way between the stone people to see the ones that could move, knocking into Paige in the process. She’d almost mistaken her youngest sister for a statue. Paige was standing so still.

  “Paige, are you okay?” Phoebe had an edge in her voice.

  That’s when Prue realized her mistake hadn’t been far from the truth. Paige’s body was still flesh, but she was as immobile as the statues around her.

  “Can’t… put down my arms,” Paige said. Her legs weren’t moving either. “I can… wiggle… my fingers.”

  “Can you activate your healing power?” Piper asked.

  “I’ll try.”

  While Paige worked her magic, Phoebe filled Prue in on all that she had missed. She’d already known about their fight with the Titans, but it was still a shock to find that something that had happened years ago while she was out of her sisters’ lives still had ramifications in the present day. Prue blamed herself once again for being so distraught that she’d been gone for so long. Grams and their mom never had a problem getting in touch with their living family members. Prue still couldn’t explain why her own death had hit her so hard. Aside from the obvious, of course.

  Prue could only watch as Paige reached inside herself and tried to heal against the magic taking over her body. Her hands emanated a golden glow that she tried to direct inward. With her arms refusing to cooperate, she couldn’t physically direct the power toward herself, but she tried to focus with her mind. “Only slowing things down.”

  Prue grabbed a bottle from the table. “Try the potion. See if it works.”

  “A little help,” Paige said weakly.

  “Oh. Sorry.” Prue flushed with embarrassment. Paige had just said she couldn’t move her arms. Prue took in the situation, unstopped the bottle and poured it over her sister’s head. “Sorry about this.”

  “No problem,” Paige grumbled as the liquid oozed over her. She closed her eyes while she still could so nothing got in.

  “We’ll fix your hair later,” Phoebe added, which earned her a glare from both Paige and Prue.

  As the potion dripped down Paige, she struggled to move her arms and legs, but Prue only saw the barest motion, and she wasn’t even sure that that wasn’t wishful thinking. “That… all we got?” Paige asked.

  “It’s the entire bottle,” Prue said. “We didn’t make any more since it was useless. I can get Frank and the fairy back. Maybe.

  Piper took in the statues around them. “That hasn’t been much of a s
uccess so far.”

  “Bad enough Paige is stuck like this,” Phoebe said. “I don’t think she needs a fairy buzzing around her head.”

  “True,” Paige said.

  Phoebe stepped up to Paige, examining her closely. Looking right into her eyes. Prue joined her as they both tried to see if there was any graying going on.

  “Personal space,” Paige said.

  “Sorry,” Prue said as they both stepped back. “I was just wondering why you haven’t turned all the way to stone yet. I mean, before you started using your healing power.”

  “It happened pretty fast in my vision with the congressman,” Phoebe added. “Those people in the shaky, blurry video got hit right away too.”

  “Maybe because she’s a witch?” Piper suggested. “The other victims were mortals.”

  “Turned to stone… fast… with the Titans.” It was getting harder to understand Paige. Her jaw wasn’t moving as much as it usually did when she spoke. Prue didn’t take that as a good sign.

  “This must be a different magic,” Prue suggested. “You said your spell had worked back then.”

  “Our magic worked yesterday morning too,” Piper reminded her. “We undid the spell on that congressman.”

  “Stheno… getting… stronger,” Paige struggled to say.

  “Stheno’s getting stronger?” That didn’t make any sense to Prue. According to Phoebe, Medusa had been the one to cast the spell on Paige.

  “No,” Phoebe said. “Stheno said she is getting stronger. I’m guessing she was talking about Medusa.”

  “Okay,” Prue said. “Then Medusa’s getting stronger. That still doesn’t explain why her power’s not strong enough to work against Paige.”

  “Because it was just her and not her sisters?” Piper suggested. “But then why would she do it on her own. No, that can’t be it.”

  “Maybe because she wasn’t trying to turn Paige to stone,” Phoebe said. “She was trying to attack Athena.”

  Prue stared blankly at her. “I don’t get it.”

  “Right before Medusa went all crazy eyes, I thought Paige was getting through to her,” Phoebe said. “I got the feeling that Medusa wasn’t the one behind this little escapade. Stheno seemed to be in charge. But then Medusa sensed some residual Goddess of War on Paige and whatever progress had been made went out the proverbial window.”

  “Sit-ters.”

  “What was that, Paige?” Prue asked. “Sitters?”

  “Sssssssss.”

  “I don’t think she’s referring to the snakes in Medusa’s hair,” Phoebe said.

  Prue was pretty sure Phoebe was right. She was also confident that she knew what Paige was struggling to say. “Sisters!”

  “Them or us?” Piper asked.

  “But that’s it!” Prue said. “That’s the connection. We’ve been thinking of Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale as gorgons all this time.”

  “If you’d seen them at the stadium it would be pretty hard to think of them as anything else,” Phoebe said.

  “But they were something else,” Prue said. “Before they were cursed. Frank said they were witches. Or implied they were. Three powerful sister-witches that worked for the Elders? Sound familiar?”

  “You think they were Charmed?” Piper asked. “And that’s the connection? That’s why their magic isn’t working on Paige.”

  “Not exactly,” Prue said. “The prophecy said we’re the most powerful witches of all time. Well, we were and now you all are. Either way, the ‘of all time’ part sounds kind of infinite to me. But I’m thinking they were something like us. Maybe a precursor to the Power of Three. That’s why her magic doesn’t fully work on Paige.”

  “And how does this help us?” Phoebe asked.

  “It’s elementary,” Prue said, looking at Paige. “The Power of Three will set you free.”

  “Where are we?” Medusa demanded. A moment ago, they were inside that stadium and now they were in some kind of gray stone building with metal bars attached to the walls. The fact that the damned goddess hadn’t sent them down to Hades was no consolation for her actions now or in the past. “What did Athena do to us?”

  “Her name is Paige, dear,” Euryale said. “That wasn’t Athena.”

  “That horrible scheming goddess was in there somewhere,” Medusa insisted, the snakes in her hair spitting with a rage that drowned out all reason. “I could taste her.”

  “We could have used this passion yesterday,” Stheno said. She was calmer than Medusa had seen her since her resurrection.

  Medusa spun on her. “You knew! Don’t deny it!”

  Stheno smiled. “I knew that she had been touched by the magic that made Athena who she was. But that was years ago. I honestly didn’t think the residual magic had stayed with her. I never imagined you would sense it. Of course, I might have if you’d told me you were back at your full strength.”

  Medusa seethed with eyes glowing and snakes writhing around her head. “You do not want to see me at my full strength. Now tell me where we are.”

  Stheno just stared smugly at her while Euryale provided the answer. “Far as I can tell, that witch sent us to Alcatraz. Former prison and current tourist trap. By the looks of the place, I’m guessing it’s closed for maintenance or something today. Or maybe we’re just in a closed off portion, though I can’t imagine the Charmed Ones sending us some place we could cause trouble. Usually mortals would be stumbling over us with their cameras.”

  Medusa ignored most of what Euryale had said, focusing on the important part. “The Charmed Ones? You’ve called them that before. You gave me the impression they were witches. Why would they possess the power of Athena?”

  “Long story,” Stheno said. “And not a very interesting one. The point is now that they know about us, they will do anything to stop us.”

  “Yeah,” Euryale said to her eldest sister. “I thought you were taking care of that part.”

  Stheno’s eyes narrowed. “This will be the last time I contract work out. From now on, we take care of our problems ourselves.”

  “Fine with me,” Medusa said, the rage building in her. She might not have Athena in this era, but she had the next best thing. “And we start with the Charmed Ones.”

  “Much as I love this newfound commitment to our plan,” Stheno said, “I don’t know that it’s the best way to allocate our resources. Now that your powers are back, we are at the strongest we’ve been in a very long time. We don’t need to be together to turn people to stone permanently. We can go anywhere in the world! Do anything! We can change the very fabric of society.”

  “And the Charmed Ones will stop at nothing to make sure we don’t do that,” Euryale said. “Honestly, I think Medusa’s on to something.”

  Medusa knew she was in trouble when Euryale was agreeing with her over Stheno. She also knew that her anger wasn’t logical. This Charmed One wasn’t Athena. She hadn’t even been born when the curse took effect. But the rage Medusa felt was clouding her thoughts. She’d mistakenly believed that she had gotten past her anger, but all she wanted now was revenge. This Paige woman finally gave her an outlet for her emotions. And she wanted vengeance.

  Thunder clapped outside the gray building, shaking the stone walls around them.

  “That… sounded familiar.” Stheno pushed past Medusa, moving toward the small window.

  “What is it?” Euryale asked.

  Medusa was too busy trying to separate her anger from the rest of her confused emotions that she really didn’t care what her sisters had noticed. At least, not until Stheno was staring at her with a smile on her face unlike any Medusa had ever seen her wear.

  “Do it again,” Stheno said.

  “Do what?” Medusa hadn’t done anything.

  “Get angry,” Stheno said. “Get mad. Think about Athena and the power she held over us. About that supp
osed ‘hero’ Perseus that killed you and took you from us. Rage against Poseidon for stealing your--”

  A crashing thunder shook the very foundation of the building before a bolt of lightning blew out the window Stheno had been beside a moment earlier. Glass flew at them, but Euryale stopped it with a wave of her hand, changing the glass into butterflies that flapped their way through the bars, disappearing down the hall.

  Both Stheno and Euryale laughed with glee as they took in the destruction of the window. Medusa blinked twice, afraid to believe what it could mean.

  Stheno’s smile shifted into something darker as she raised a hand, gathering the moisture in the air above her palm before turning it into a ball of ice. “Our active powers have returned!”

  It couldn’t be possible. Medusa refused to believe it. They were standing there in their gorgon bodies, snakes hissing on their heads. They weren’t witches any longer. They didn’t possess any magic beyond the parlor tricks Athena had gifted them with. And yet, the lightning Medusa had called down was not part of her curse. It came from before that time. “How?”

  “Your rebirth,” Stheno said. “When we tapped into the magic of the Charmed Ones and the magic of the Nexus of the All, it changed us. We were connected with the most powerful witches of all time. It might have reawakened our powers too.”

  “But we still bear the curse,” Euryale said, pointing to her face as if she needed to remind them.

  In a blink, Stheno adopted her human form. “So what? It’s just another gift we carry. Turning people to stone can come in quite handy. And with our magic back, we can probably keep these glamours up indefinitely.”

  Euryale let out a squeal, clapping her hands together as she changed her body. The outfit she wore this time fit her like a second skin. She had even worse shoes on that appeared to be made from the skin of snakes.

  “But it’s not us,” Medusa said, sounding unsure of herself. If Athena’s curse could be subdued, she might be able to live a normal life. She might be able to move on. But even as she changed herself back into the form she’d been born into, she could still feel the snakes which now slumbered on her head. She could still feel the hate for Athena and for the woman alive today that had once tasted her power.