AUTHORS NOT: I don't know how I'm going to really finish this story, but if you like it please comment so I know it's good. If I don't get any comments I know it's a bust. But thanks for reading anyways. I do hope you enjoy it though! Remember JESUS SAVES! :)
PROLOGUE
"Mommy," the little girl cried into her mother's comforting shoulder, "I don't want to. I don't like it." Their faces floated around in her head and behind her eyes when she closed them. Their screams echoed in her ears. The smell of their blood was still strong on her hands. The taste of it still lingered in her mouth.
"Oh, honey," her mother rocked her back and forth, "you have to. You see if you don't, you will die and how do you think Mommy could live with herself without her little Cori?" She rocked her trying to get her to stop crying. It was tearing her apart to see her daughter like this. She loved her daughter, more than any other mother in the history of time had loved their daughter. She would do anything for her. Kill anyone. Go anywhere. Do anything.
Wasn't that why they were here? Because she loved her children so damn much she hadn't been able to let them go? The girl continued to cry softly. "I know, but isn't there another way? I don't like this way. I still see them. They shouldn't have to die for me to live."
She cringed at her daughter's words. She was so intelligent for just being four years old. She was beginning to understand consequences and good and wrong. She had to do something. If she lost her daughter, after losing everything else she had, she didn't know what she would do. She needed her daughter. She pulled the girls face away from her body where they were looking eye to eye. She wiped a falling tear away from her little girl's cheek. "Now you know Mommy loves you right?"
The girl smiled and nodded. That was one thing she did know. Her mommy loved her more than anything ever, she had told her that. "And I love you just as much."
The woman laughed, "Well, now I know that's not true. I love you all the way to the moon."
Cori thought about what her mom had said. "Well," she giggled using the same tone as her mommy had, "I love you all the way to the moon…and back!" she laughed in triumph when her mom just smiled back at her.
"I still love you more!" she tickled Cori's ribs until the little girl's face was turning red.
"Mommy, stop! Stop! I'm going to pee!"
The woman laughed and sat the girl back up to face her. "You see? I love you and you love me. So we'll always look out for each other, right?"
Cori nodded.
"And I would never do anything to hurt you, so you have to trust me," she looked her little girl, who was a much more beautiful, much more innocent, replica of herself. It hurt her to know that she was in pain, physical or emotional, but things had to be this way. She would die if she didn't kill those people. What were their lives to her anyway? Nothing. Family came first. Always.
Cori nodded again. A new tear forming in the bottom of her eye. She understood what her mommy was saying. To stay together, she needed to…she couldn't make herself think the word…those people. She loved her mommy more than anything in the world. "Okay, Mommy. I trust you."
CHAPTER ONE
Piper stared at the dying girl in front of her. She had seen many heart breaking things, even her own sister's dead body, but this was a definite close second. "Leo!" she screamed, "Leo, get your ass down here NOW."
She ran to the girl's side who was breathing like she was being forced underwater. Dark blood ran down her back from the lacerations that revealed the very interior of her body. Sweat ran down her face and blood matted her hair. Her skin was pale, perhaps from the severe blood loss. Piper frowned when she noticed how much blood the girl really was losing. She would be dead within the minute if someone didn't help. "LEO!"
"Piper," the girl rasped raising her head an inch in an attempt to take Piper's. Surprised at hearing her name, Piper took the girl's hand, "Please…I can't…she did this…I'm so close…"
A familiar jingling sound filled the room. Without looking Piper shouted over her shoulder. "Get over here!"
She felt the man at her side and sighed in relief when she saw his hands glow blue.
"No!" the girl screamed louder than Piper would have thought possible for a person in her condition, but it was too late. Shining blue lightening streaks sparked from the girl's back to Leo's hands sending him flying across the room. The girl screamed and collapsed; her entire body twitching from the electric energy now flowing through her body. Piper watched in horror as the currents charged through her body, leaping over the girl's skin from wound to wound. Yet Piper could see that that second of healing had helped. The cuts, or whatever you could call them, were almost closed up. The bleeding wasn't nearly as bad as it had been though she was sure to bleed to death if something more wasn't done soon. Without all the excess blood Piper finally saw what the injuries had been: whip marks. "What the hell?"
"Why…" she gasped even through the pain Piper could see the confusion and betrayal evident on the girl's face.
"I didn't know," she caught herself saying without fully understanding why she felt the need to explain herself to this stranger girl lying on her couch dying in front of her.
The girl shifted her head to look at Piper. She gasped and looked even more confused than before, "Spell," she finally said, "Book…heal."
She heard the sound of Leo getting up and turned to make sure he was okay. He shook his head to clear it and glared at the girl. "Get away from her," he marched over and shoved Piper to where he was between her and the girl. He eyed the girl who was now barely breathing.
"Leo, what're you doing?"
"She's a demon, Piper. That's why I couldn't heal her."
"Leo, look at her. You did heal her, maybe not all the way, but you did."
Leo shrugged, "So she's only half demon. It doesn't change anything."
The girl hiccupped and groaned in pain. Her hands formed fists around the fabric so tight that her knuckles were purple and white. "I don't care," Piper said unable to pry her eyes away from the helpless innocent dying on her couch, "I'm going to help her." She headed towards the stairs, shaking away from Leo's restraining hold.
"Where are you going?" he demanded.
"To get the Book to find the spell that will heal her," she said confidently glad she was able to decipher the girl's plead.
"Piper, there's no spell that can heal a demon."
"Watch," Piper bounded up the stairs with a confidence that she didn't quite understand. She had never heard of the spell or saw the spell the girl was talking about but she knew it was there. Call it intuition. Leo muttered something under his breath, but Piper was too determined to care. At least he wasn't resisting anymore. She reached the attic and raced toward the Book. That girl's life depended on speed. She gasped when the pages started to flip by themselves only to land on a page with no heading only a spell. "Thanks, Grams," she smiled proudly at Leo, "Obviously Grams doesn't think she's a threat."
Leo didn't say anything. He knew this was right. That wasn't only electricity that had shot him back, it was power. That innocent, as he knew Piper thought of her as, wasn't just another demon. She was powerful; he had never felt so much power in his life. Never. It scared him, and he had only felt a pinch of it. If it had only been power though, that still wouldn't have made him want to let that thing in there die, it was dark magic. Unlike the Charmed Ones, he had never been turned evil, but he had been around long enough to know how hate, anger, and pain felt like. Even in that small dose of what he had experienced, he knew that saving that thing was the wrong thing to do. It was evil. Pure evil.
"Piper, stop," he sighed all she did was continue to write down the spell. "Piper, that thing in there isn't an innocent. I felt it."
At that her head shot up, "What do you mean you felt it?"
"When that bolt hit me," he noticed her cringe and frowned, "I felt whatever it is that's in it. It's dark, Piper. I mean evil. I can't even describe it."
"I don't care," she finished writing down the spell and walked past the stunned Whitelighter.
"Piper, don't!" he yelled watching as she walked out of the attic.
"I'm not listening!"
"Then I'm calling your sisters!" he threatened knowing that that probably wouldn't do any good, but it was all he had left.
"Good!" He could tell she was already down stairs. Damn it, he cursed and orbed out to find the only two people in the world that could talk some sense into Piper Halliwell…or at least they could try.
Piper didn't care if this girl was supposedly evil. Leo had been able to heal at least a little of her which meant some part of her was good, and she couldn't explain it but she felt like she had to help her. From the second she had walked into the Manor and saw her lying on the couch, barely alive, Piper knew she had to help her. She couldn't live with herself if she didn't.
Piper ran to her side. Her heart dropped when the girl's body wasn't heaving up and down showing she was breathing.
She fumbled with the spell in her hand.
"Through fire and flames
Let love come back
And heal the wounds
Of this punishments act."
Piper let out a sigh of relief when she saw the wounds begin to grow together. Blood still covered most of the girl's body, keeping Piper from fully inspecting the girl's progress. Her eyes didn't open, but her breathing had returned to within normal range…if she had just run a marathon. Her hair was matted with sweat, and Piper could still see the pain on the girl's face. "What happened to you?" she asked not expecting an answer, merely musing.
The girl's head twitched in her direction though. Piper nearly fell over from the sudden look of torture on her face. It was as if she was reliving the experience that had sent her to death. Her face was drawn and haunted. Piper was glad her eyes were closed afraid of the pain she would find there. She made sure the spell was still working and went to make a basin of water to clean her up. She was left to deal with the shock as the water was filling the bowl.
The girl couldn't have been over sixteen or seventeen years old. Even with the years of her own gruesome experiences, she couldn't fully understand how something like that could happen. The stripes had literally gone to the bone. Blood had poured through the wounds, which Piper realized now that the girl was safe, was going to leave nasty stains on her furniture. She didn't know how the girl got here, and after she found out who she was, that was next on the list.
How had she known my name?
Piper knew that her and her sister's were numero uno on the demonic hit list, and many demons probably knew their names, but this girl had called out to her as if she expected…needed her to help her. That girl knew her, but she had never seen her before in her life.
The water was done. She turned it off, grabbed a rag, headed into the living room only to stop dead when she saw her sisters hovering around her innocent. She recovered quickly though, "Move," she ordered setting the basin on the floor beside the couch.
Her sisters complied, probably still in shellshock from the horrible sight of the girl.
"What…happened…" Phoebe breathed unable to process what she was seeing. There was a child in front of her looking as if she had been through hell and back literally. Every once in a while, the girl's body would jerk from an unknown adjutant. Blood covered every part of her body. Fresh wounds were healing before her eyes, but they were still horrible. Sweat rolled down her face. A look of pure terror marred her features which Phoebe would on any other occasion thought could rival the most famous super model there ever was.
"I don't know. She was here when I got home. It was much worse," Piper sighed when the girl winced as she washed the warm water over her back. At this point, the couch was a loss. Blood ran off revealing the new scars underneath. Piper gasped when it became obvious that there were other, older scars all across her back.
Paige was livid with anger. That was someone's child. She was the newest witch, but she felt she had seen plenty in the past years to never be shocked by anything else the world could throw at her. Boy, had she been wrong. She clasped her hands into fists in order to not throw something across the room. Her whole body shook. She was going to kill the son of a bitches, no scratch that. She was going to find them, and do to them what they had done to this baby. Even though she couldn't be more than seven or eight years younger than herself, she was baby. As a social worker, Paige had saw and heard about horrible things being done to children. It was way beyond her how someone could do this to another person that had been entrusted to them someone who couldn't defend themselves. But the way Leo had described the situation, Piper was about to unleash Pandora's Box all over again. Looking at this helpless, dying girl, Paige couldn't find a hint of evil. It didn't matter if she was evil though; she had seen the look of determination in Piper's eyes. There's no way the eldest Charmed One was letting this one go. Paige didn't want her to let this one go.
"How. Could. It. Be. Worse." Paige said through gritted teeth. Clenching and unclenching her fists to relieve some anger. She honestly felt sorry for the next demon that crossed their path. Paige had a lot of anger at the moment, and she had known her sister's long enough to know they felt the same.
Piper didn't answer her sister. She wouldn't be able to keep the horror out of her voice. As she was washing off the new blood it became clear as hell that this girl had been tortured for most of her life. Layers of scars striped her back all over; looking over them, Piper's heart broke. She studied the rest of her body to make sure that there weren't any other injuries that needed taking care of. Piper's heart completely shattered. The girl had on loose shorts that revealed most of her legs, if not too much, but that wasn't what caught her eye. There were scars everywhere. The girl's skin was ridged all over from the thick scars. She looked as if she had been thrown into a shredder and lived. Her thighs were covered in dark purple bruises. She had been beaten. Piper almost sent the water basin flying across the room. "I'm going to kill whoever-," she unable to finish. She was going to hunt down these monsters and make sure they never saw the light of day again.
Cori felt the warm water washing over her body, and sighed in relief. If she had the strength left in her, she knew she would be screaming. But her body was too focused on surviving to leave any energy for anything else. Everything was cold which only seemed to sharpen the pain. Her lungs wouldn't comply with her need for oxygen. It was like her chest and throat was shriveling up leaving her no way to breathe. She needed to sit up or she would suffocate. The girl moaned and pulled her arms in trying to let the pressure off her chest. Her head felt like it was going to explode. She could still feel each strike piercing her skin. Her skin was going to rip off her back and cause her entire body to fall apart. Needles pricked over and under skin. She could feel the electricity moving through her body, playing with her strength, trying to find a weakness to kill her. It was looking for her heart; the only problem was she had blocked off her heart a long time ago. The bruises on her legs and shoulders pounded against the little movement. She whimpered when her muscles ripped from the stress, and she fell back onto the couch.
Burning acid filled her mouth. If she didn't get it out, it was going to tear her face apart. She spit it out and sucked in a deep breath of air.
Phoebe cringed at the site of the blood-filled vomit. "I'll get a towel," she said desperate to help.
"Me too," Paige said ignoring the look from Phoebe. She needed to get out of here, or she was going to throw up. And that wouldn't help anything.
Piper continued to swipe the cloth across the girl's back in slow motions. Most of the blood was on her couch now, but she kept going because it apparently soothed the girl's pain. She had tried to sit up, but fell back down and threw up, so she was close to coming back to consciousness. Maybe talking would help, "Hey, Sweetie."
Cori heard Piper's voice, sweet and caring, but something was missing from it too. She wanted nothing more than to answer the only person that had ever cared for her, but her mind couldn't find the words in the chaos it was now. Thoughts, memories, emotions rolled through her head bouncing off every side and not making any sense. So she did the only thing that she could do and grunted just to let Piper know she was listening. The rag stopped on her back, then started its rounds again.
Up, down, up, down, up, down.
Cori tried to concentrate on the movements, but her head reeled from the pressure of doing anything.
"How you feeling?"
Her body automatically reacted to the question. She chuckled/groaned as a response, trying to convey as much sarcasm into the action as possible.
Piper laughed, relieved that the girl was recovering.
Phoebe leaned against the counter and slid down to the floor. She covered her face with her hands trying to get rid of the images she had just witnessed. "What the hell was that?" Paige whispered, but Phoebe could hear the anger in her sister's voice. "I mean, we have seen a lot, but…that was…that…" it wasn't often that Paige found herself at a loss for words, but nothing could have prepared her to see that.
"That was torture," Phoebe gasped between sobs. "Someone tortured that girl."
Paige sat down beside her sister, ignoring the nauseous feeling in her stomach. She wrapped her arm around Phoebe comfortingly. "You okay?" She knew how sensitive Phoebe was when it came to children. Working in her career though she knew that you never really got used to seeing a child in pain.
Phoebe shot a look at her sister. It didn't matter if she was okay. "I'm fine." It was a lie. If she was keeping track of the days that had changed her life the most, this was going in the top ten. She jumped up and away from her sister. "We're needed in there. I better get that cleaned up in there before Piper has an aneurism."
Paige knew her sister was lying; Phoebe's hands were shaking and she looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Yeah," was all she said though because what Phoebe had said was true. They had a job to do. Phoebe grabbed a towel and nodded at her sister. Paige breathed in a fresh breath of air before following Phoebe into the living room which ranked of vomit and blood.
Leo paced in front of three of the other Elders. "What are we going to do?"
"What we have always done in the past," one of them said.
Leo glared at Gered, "This isn't something that we have ever faced before." He shook his head. Nobody understood. He himself didn't understand. His mind couldn't even comprehend the evil that he had felt. "That thing down there, in the Charmed One's home, with my sons," he shuddered at the thought of that thing being near his children, "is evil."
"The Charmed Ones have faced great evil before, Leo, and I'm sure this won't be the last time either."
"Not like this they haven't." he would be damned if he was going to let anything happen to his family.
"Or maybe you're just being paranoid because of-," the woman Elder cut herself off at Leo's withering glare.
"Don't finish," he growled. "This is not paranoia. We have to do something."
"And what do you want us to do? We can't just go sending in an army every time something happens at the Charmed manor," Brant said. He had been friends with Leo for a long time, but ever since his future son had come back to the past to fix Gideon's betrayal, something the Elders still hadn't recovered from, Leo had been off the chain paranoid. "We have other responsibilities."
"More important the future of all good?" Leo shouted causing some of the other Elders to stare at the four.
"Leo, calm do-,"
"NO!" he shouted. "I guess I'm just going to have to do this myself."
"Don't do anything stupid," Brant warned, "You're walking on thin ice as is."
"Are you threatening me?" How could the Elders be so blind? They had just escaped one supreme evil and now they were going to let another one right back into the Charmed One's lives. He was not going to let anything evil near his family ever again.
"That's not what he meant," Gered sighed rubbing his temples. Leo was wearing everyone thin these days. "You just need to calm yourse-," but before he could finish Leo was gone.
"How's she doing?" Phoebe asked. She looked away from the girl's body scared that if looked again she would find more evidence of the hell she had been through.
"She lost consciousness again, but her breathing is normal at least." Phoebe could already here the exhaustion in Piper's voice. Piper let out a sigh of relief, "The spell worked though. The wounds have closed and the bleeding has stopped."
Piper's words caught Phoebe's attention, "Spell?"
Piper didn't stop massaging the girl's back with the rag but turned and looked at her sisters for the first time. She could tell they were traumatized as well. Without having to say a word, she knew that they were going to do whatever they had to to protect this girl. She caught herself sighing; at least she wasn't going to be in this alone. Leo had disappeared, probably trying to get Elderly backup. Something that made Piper sick at her stomach. She and her sisters had been fighting the Elders at every turn and now the love of her life was one of them. Fate had a dark sense of humor. "Leo tried to heal her, but when he did…" she shook her head. She didn't know how to describe what happened, "it backfired or something. Lightening shot out of," she motioned at the girl, "and flew him across the room. Then it turned on her."
Phoebe and Paige tried to process what they just heard. "Lightening? Like electrons whizzing through the air?" Paige said trying to imagine it. A smile crept on her face despite herself, "And hit Leo? Man, oh man, do I wish I could have seen that one!"
Phoebe hit her younger sister, "Paige!"
"Oh c'mon, you're telling me that you wouldn't have enjoyed that, just a little?" she knew she had her sister's trapped. Leo was family and they would never do anything to hurt him. But sometimes the guy could be too big for his own shoes. Paige had never fully forgiven for choosing to become an Elder over taking care of his family though and- a thought popped into her head. "That's some firepower."
Piper nodded having already thought of that, but Phoebe frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Think about it. Leo is an Elder now. Even though we know the Elders are a bunch of pansy, ass-kissing, losers," she smiled at Piper's warning glare," and you know it's true, but, Phoebe, they are pretty powerful. Remember when Leo tried to heal Cole?"
Phoebe frowned at the name but nodded. He shouldn't still be able to get to her like that. His name shouldn't have that much control over her. He was dead and gone. She had moved on with her life, but sometimes she wondered if maybe they had tried just one more time…if somehow she had been better… "Yeah, I remember."
"It was like that times a hundred," Piper said remembering the feeling of the electricity shooting through the air. "If wasn't aimed at the father of my children, I would have been impressed." But it had been. She was petrified the moment it happened. Leo was her love even if they weren't together. They would always love each other no matter what happened. The Elders had even tried to break them up by erasing Leo's memory and sending him half way across the country, and it still hadn't been enough. Piper frowned, but it looks like they succeeded in the end.
Phoebe studied the girl's face, afraid of the ruin the rest of her body was in. It was beautiful that was one thing. Even with her eyes closed, Phoebe could see that the eyes were big and almond shaped. Long eye lashes were pulled together with sweat and blood. Her heart shaped lips were down casted into a frown. What looked to be light brown (it was hard to tell from all the blood) hair cupped her face. Instinctually, Phoebe reached out and pulled a strand of hair out of the girl's face. She grimaced at the touch and Phoebe quickly pulled away. Sorry she had done anything to add to the pain the girl was already in. Who could do this to someone especially a child? She understood this was a cold world, and the magical world even harsher, but this? What had she done to deserve this? Nothing, Phoebe decided. No one in the history of the world deserved the punishment this girl was going through.
"You said something about a potion?" Paige asked pulling both sisters out of their thoughts.
"Yeah, after Leo tried to heal her," Piper glared at Paige's smirk, "she said that there was a spell in the Book. Well, it was more like she tried to tell me. All she really said was spell, book, heal."
"How did she know there was a spell in the Book? Only Halliwells know what's in-," Paige stopped, and all three sister's stared at the girl on the couch, Piper still rubbing the warm water on her back.
"No…" Phoebe gasped. It couldn't be. Surely, this wasn't a Halliwell. Too much had happened in the last few months for them to nix time travel off the list of anything. Chris had come back to save the future and keep Wyatt from being turned evil. If she was from the future, what could she be here for?
"Don't jump the gun," Piper warned. "There could be other explanations."
Paige rolled her eyes at her eldest sister's denial. "Like what?"
Piper didn't say anything and Paige nodded. "Well, gang, looks like we have another mystery to solve. The case of which Halliwell is it!"
"Hold on!" Piper snapped at her sister causing both Phoebe and Paige to stop and stare at her. "Leo said she was evil," she gritted, "so evil he didn't even want me to heal her. We fixed the future. No," she glared at her sisters, "Halliwell is evil. They can't be." Horrible thoughts were running through her mind. What if it hadn't been enough? They had saw Wyatt turn good, but what if? She couldn't bring herself to believe it. Someone was wrong whether Leo or her sisters she didn't care. Someone had to be wrong. She couldn't live with the fact that she had failed again.
Cori's defenses were down, and up to this point she had been able to hold off the memories. Something had to give though. It seemed as her body was healing her willpower was fading. She felt the presence start to trickle out into her body. All within her powers were screaming at her to kill. They wanted blood. Her body was tired, not just from the last family visit, she hadn't ate in almost three months.
Three months, that's all it's been? She searched through the last months that felt like an eternity. Everything had changed, and not for the better. At least not for her, it had for the world. And that's what she was fighting for. Her mother had always said family first, but she knew that was a flat out lie. It was everyone else then family. The greater good as the Elders liked to rub in her face every chance they got. A wave of electricity shot through her veins, weakening her tumbling defenses. She couldn't do this for much longer. The walls she had set up around the evil part of her were chipping away piece by piece. Soon it would find the cracks and there would be no stopping it. She desperately tried to build them back, willing her mind to respond; already she could feel the darkness leaking out into the rest of her body. She fought against it with all of the strength she had left.
I will not give in. This isn't me. It was trickling out of her heart, spreading towards the rest of her body. It flexed its reach, constricting her chest and setting it on fire. She screamed. Fire. It was burning her from the inside out. Everything, every pain, every lash of the whip, every attack, every fight, all rolled into one were nothing compared to this. She tore at her chest, ignoring the weak protest of her shoulders. "Get it out!" she cried. "Piper, please, get it out of me!" The fire burned brighter at her words, relishing in her pain. It seared her heart. Her finger nails dug into her skin drawing blood. The burning was the only thing she felt. It spiraled into a point at her heart taking away the air. She gasped for breath with no reward. It was suffocating her. Smoke filled her throat not allowing any air inside. Her chest imploded under the pressure, but the fire burned on. White hot irons pressed to her heart and stopped its beating.
"What the hell?" Piper jumped up at the girl's sudden scream.
"Get it out!" she yelled, "Piper, please, get it out of me!" Piper didn't know what to do. The girl started to writhe on the couch, clawing at her chest. she ripped huge scratches where her heart should be. Paige reacted first.
"We have to stop her! She's going to kill herself!" Paige grabbed both of the girl's wrists and tried to control her arms.
"No!" the girl shrieked, sounding as if she was drowning. "Get it out! Stop the burning, please. Make it stop! Piper! Piper! Piper!" She called out to the eldest living Charmed One, but Piper just stood there. She ran every way she could help through her head and not one them actually made sense. Yet this girl was counting on her. Her maternal instincts kicked in. She clasped the girl's face in both her hands. "Honey, stop. You're okay nothing is going to happen to you. You're safe here. I'm here; it's Piper, Baby. Nothing is wrong." Piper prayed to God that this would work. It had to work.
Cori heard Piper's voice. She felt hands searing her face. Hot iron hands held onto her wrists preventing her from ripping her heart out of her chest. She tried to get away from them but they held. Her skin was melting from her face, she felt it. But she had heard Piper's voice. She tried to concentrate on that instead of her heart's burning. Piper the one who had saved her from becoming the monster she was destined to be. She was here. The burning dulled a degree but it still scorched her chest. She screamed silently unable to suck in any air.
"Stop it now, Baby. Nothing is wrong," Piper's words rang in her head. Each word diminished the fire as her heart filled with the love she felt for Piper. It was the one thing that kept her afloat when everything else was lost. As if in one last attempt to take over her body, the fire leaped forward, bigger and brighter than before. She cried against the pain and suffocation. Her lungs begged for new air, but the smoke blocked her throat. The fire scorched through her chest leaving behind a trail of flames that shattered her heart. It was going to win. She couldn't hold it off.
"Nothing is wrong," Piper repeated, but the girl hadn't changed. Her mouth was open in a silent scream. She wasn't breathing. Piper panicked. "You have to stop this!" She bawled tears forming in her eyes. "I need you."
I need you. Piper was here. The fire sparked, culminating into one final flare. It was going to set her entire body on fire, but Piper was here. She wouldn't let anything happen to me; she needs me. I need to stay alive for her. The fire receded at Cori's thoughts. Flames tried to latch onto something, but Cori pushed them back. The effort used the last of her air supply. Her mind swirled and went black from the sudden exertion. "Piper, I need you." Then there was nothing.