Chapter One – The New Girl in Time

Ziggy Marley was playing Rainbow in the Sky at P3 the night after the sisters stopped Zachary and the Headless Horseman from killing teachers for 'keeping him at school against his will.' Chris was walking to the back room when he noticed something off about one of the customers on the other side of the club. He knew something was off about her but could quite place what it was. She didn't seem to be there to dance or drink or have a good time at all, in fact, she appeared to be all business.

She was unusual looking but beautiful; she appeared quite pale under the flashing lights of the club and she had very short, very blue hair, which in itself could have been the reason he noticed her. She wasn't exactly dressed for a club, instead she was clothed in black pants with chains and straps hanging off them, combat boots and a large shoulder bag – both of which appeared to be covered in blood – and a fitted heavy metal band t shirt. His eyes lingered on the shirt for a moment and he figured out what it was that was bothering him about her. He looked closer at the girl and quickly walked over to her.

"Hey you, come with me," he said, pulling on her arm.

"Oi, what are you doing?" she fought against him but then froze when she saw him, "You—"

"Come on," he pulled her to another room off to the side of the club.

"What is your problem?" she cried when they were out of sight from the rest of the club.

"Where exactly are you from? Or more importantly, when are you from?" he glared down at her.

"Excuse me?" her anger evaporated immediately and was replaced with arrogance as she looked up at him, blinking innocently, "I can't say I know what you're talking about."

Chris raised an eyebrow and pointed to her shirt, "That band doesn't form for another few years yet."

The girl in front of him froze and slowly looked down at her t shirt. She scoured her memory in regards to her current attire and swore, "Ah, shit."

She swiftly pulled the shirt over her head and held her hand out, "Give me your shirt," she ordered.

"What are you doing?" Chris whisper shouted, trying not to look and failing miserably.

"Come on, you can just orb away and get another shirt; I don't have any other clothes," she thought for a second, "Unless you want me to put on a corset and tutu."

"Excuse me?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Never mind; long story short, I didn't expect to travel twenty three years in the past when I went to work this morning," she said, "Now gimme."

He stared at her for a minute, giving up on subtlety as he looked her over. She had two small scars her otherwise flawless skin; one in a vertical line down her sternum that looked like someone had tried to carve her heart out of her chest and the other just below her ribcage that resembled a stab wound. On her left breast, over her heart, there was a tattoo of a pentacle inked only a few shades darker than her skin and he spied two more tattoos poking out the top of her jeans of three interlinking circles on the front of each hipbone.

"Eyes up here," he snapped his eyes back up to hers hesitated a few more moments before speaking.

"Why not?" he agreed in a sarcastic tone and pulled his shirt off. He started to hand it over but then pulled his hand back.

The unknown girl waved her extended arm expectantly, while forcing herself to look at his face and trying to pretend she wasn't staring at him, "Hello, you gonna hand it over?"

"One thing first," Chris bargained, still holding on to his shirt, "what's your name?"

"Oh come on, are you serious?" she lowered her arm and put her hands on her hips.

"Well, you seem to know me but I have no idea who you are."

She sighed, "Urgh, fine. Pandora, my name is Pandora," she held her hand out again, "now can I have the shirt?"

"Full name," Chris said in an almost teasing tone. The girl –Pandora – clenched her outstretched hand into a fist and turned her head to the side in frustration but then looked back at him out of the corner of her eye.

"Knox. Pandora Knox, you happy? Now, shirt please?" He handed over the shirt and she gave him her old one. After quickly pulling the over-sized shirt over her head, she pulled her studded belt out of her pants and put around her waist, making the baggy shirt fit to her figure. Chris orbed away and reappeared a few seconds later without her shirt and pulling a clean shirt over his head.

"So, are you happy now?" Pandora asked.

"Not quite; you still haven't told me when you're from," he pointed out.

"Well, isn't it obvious? Same as you, just a couple of months later," she explained, shrugging.

"Well, why?" he asked, still not understanding.

Pandora sighed again, noting that she was doing that far too often and reluctantly explained, "All I know is that you were supposed to save my mother. History says that you did, my vision said you did, but if you cease to exist, then I cease to exist, and not only that but my brothers and my sister and my niece will too."

He just looked at her with a disbelieving expression, "And you expect me to believe that? How do I know you weren't sent back to kill me? And I thought I took the time travel spell away."

"Well, I was hired to kill you," she said, "but I'm not going to, because you're the only hope for a better future that I have seen and if I do kill you, I'll die too. We have interlinked fates."

"But, how did you even get here?" he continued to stare at her. "I took the spell away."

"And that is why I was specifically sought out for the job," she explained, "That's my power; I'm a time travelling witch."

"I know I know," she continued and started pacing, although she seemed to be talking to herself now, "it could throw off the whole natural order, but I can't do it all the time, only when it needs to happen and this definitely needed to happen considering the chain of events leading up to it."

Chris tried to interrupt but she kept going, "No one actually knows that I can't do it whenever I want, most people only know that I can travel in time which is the whole reason I was hired and that's how I got the information I needed to know about you and the Charmed Ones."

"And I know that that was stupid and could have gotten me killed," Chris tried to interrupt again but she spoke over him, "but I had to do it to save my niece. She's just a little girl. She's so innocent and little and hasn't had time to be corrupted by the world she lives in and—"

"Pandora," Chris cut her off, "I wasn't going to ask, I of all people understand that there are things you can't say."

Pandora looked at him blankly, realising she looked like an idiot, "Right, well, I'm anxious. You can't blame a girl for being a little nervous when her life is on the line before she's even born."

"I can relate to you on that one," he sadly, "I have less than a month to get my parents together."

He looked back up at her, "Which means you too do I guess."

"Guess so."

"So, you're here to help," he clarified.

"Yep and fast; I keep having visions of disappearing," she held her head in her hands.

"You have premonitions as well?" He pressed, trying to get more information about her.

"Well, not really. It's more linked to my time travel power and how it developed and stuff," she answered vaguely. Chris looked at her curiously, trying not to seem like he was snooping.

Pandora sighed again and cursed internally about the constant sighing and started to explain how her power worked.

"My powers started emerging when I was four or five and I could always just tell when people needed to be somewhere and when they were in the wrong place," she said, still holding her head.

"Then when I was about eight years old, I started to just feel when things were wrong and that evolved into getting visions of when people were going to be in the wrong place. I only get visions when history is going wrong which was how I knew who you were and how to find you," Chris nodded as she talked, letting her know he was following so far and gave a cue for her to continue.

"I never time travelled until I was sixteen which is when I saw a woman die because she was in the wrong place. I somehow travelled back in time and lead her to where she was meant to be and she lived," she smiled and lowered her hands, "I'm also really fast and not like, track star fast, more like, The Flash fast."

"Oh really," he raised an eyebrow.

"You don't believe me?" Pandora said playfully.

"Well, I haven't seen this power at work and I've never even heard of it," he said, "Then again, I've never heard of time travel as a talent either."

"Yeah well, I'm an enigma," she said.

"So, I bet a lot of people want your power?" Chris asked. Pandora's eyes snapped up to his.

"That is none of your business," she retorted angrily. She looked up at him, slightly annoyed that he was taller than her. At five feet and ten inches with the aid of the three inch platforms on her boots, she didn't have to look up to many people so when she did it irked her; on the other hand, it was a refreshing change.

"I'm sorry, I just—" she faltered, "It's a sore subject."

"I didn't know," he said.

"Well, you don't know me so how could you know," she said and then looked to the side in thought, "And it's just occurred to me that I have nowhere to stay."

She looked back up at him, "Umm, help?"

He rolled his eyes at her and orbed the two of them away.