Chapter 1

"Piper!" the cry rang through the house. Piper Halliwell jumped, sending a spray of basil across the counter. "Damn," she muttered under her breath. The random cries had been coming more frequently, as her sister Phoebe's husband, the half-demon-half-human Cole had just been vanquished – for the last time. They hoped.

Piper turned off the stove, and walked through the dining room to the sunroom, where the cry had come from.

As soon as she walked in the room, she knew that something was wrong. Phoebe was in one of the white wicker chairs, looking like she'd been shot. Piper knew what that looked like; it wasn't an experience she was interested in reliving. It had been terrifying enough the first time Phoebe had been shot.

Paige, their half-sister, had her hand on Phoebe's shoulder, trying to calm her down. Phoebe was still breathing hard as Piper joined them, and placed her hand on Phoebe's forehead. "What happened, sweetie?" she asked.

"She had a premonition." Paige said, looking as if that was the worst thing that had ever happened.

"So? Premonitions are a good thing," Piper put in, stating the obvious. "It's not like you haven't had them before." It was true: Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were witches; they were the All-Powerful Charmed Ones. "Well, what did you see?" she asked Phoebe.

"I've never had one like this before," Phoebe began. She looked like she was going to try to sit, but Paige held her down gently. She wasn't in good enough shape to be vertical. "I saw… a girl. She was… I don't know, about thirteen or fourteen. She was down for the count, and Piper… you were holding her and crying. Her eyes were closed at first, but then they opened. They… flamed, and then they went black."

"Wait… you mean there was a flame of defiance, and then they went blank as she died?" asked Paige.

"No. Black. Black as Coal." Phoebe's eyes looked tortured as she said the last word.

"Was she a demon?" asked Piper, her no-nonsense manner kicking in.

"I don't know - she didn't seem demonic. But then I saw her throw an energy ball at me." Phoebe's words hung for a moment. Then, just as Piper was opening her mouth to say something else, a giant crash sounded from the front hall.

"Damn, we just got those doors fixed," Piper muttered as she lead the way through the house. What she expected to see – namely, a huge, lumbering demon (or a young girl, like in Phoebe's vision) was not what had just crashed through the double doors.

It was a tiger. "Oh my god!" Piper screamed as she lifted her hands to freeze the tiger.

"Holy…" Paige's voice stopped as she slipped and lost her balance in her surprise. Piper grabbed Paige's arm to keep her from falling, and Phoebe grabbed her from behind. It was probably, Piper thought, to keep Phoebe from falling as well.

"What the hell is that thing?" Phoebe yelled when she saw what it was over Piper's shoulder. There was nothing wrong with her lungs, Piper thought, relieved. But we might try to get those eyes checked out.

"That's a tiger." She said, looking the frozen creature up and down.

"That's not what I meant…" Phoebe's voice dropped as a girl shimmered into the room.

"Electra!" she screamed when she saw the tiger. When it didn't move, she whirled to face the Charmed Ones, her face scared and angry. "What did you do to her?"

"It's ok, it's just frozen," Piper said, trying to calm the girl.

"That's her, that's the girl form my premonition, oh my god, that's her, what the hell are we going to do, why is she here –" Phoebe's voice didn't stop until she ran out of air.

The girl was in hysterics. Her brown hair was disheveled-looking, long, unwashed and tangled. It spun outwards as she turned her head violently form side to side, looking first at the tiger, then at the Charmed Ones. "No! I don't believe you," she panted, looking scared beyond all comprehension. Producing a small knife from a wrist sheath that had been hidden by her sleeve, she shimmered out, then back in behind Piper. Surprisingly, she didn't put the knife to Piper's throat, like most demons did, just held it as she shimmered out again with Piper.

"Okay," Paige's voice came out small.

"Well…" Phoebe stuttered.

Paige reflected on the humor that she and Phoebe couldn't think of anything to say to that, when they had been at this demon-hunting thing for years. "I… We have to do something, fast. 'Cause with Piper gone, we've got about…" The tiger unfroze. "No time until that thing unfreezes. Run!" Paige grabbed Phoebe, who was slowly recovering her strength, and dragged her around the corner into the sitting room and into the conservatory, where the spirit board was still laid out from the night before. Phoebe had been trying to get a message or premonition of whether Cole was really gone or not. Crouching behind the white wicker behind Phoebe, Paige saw the spirit board's pointer move.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Phoebe asked her, shaking Paige's shoulder until it hurt. All Paige could concentrate on was the pointer. It moved spookily across the spirit board until it spelled out, 'Innocent'.

WOAH, Paige thought. "Paige!" Phoebe's voice was squeaky. "Come on! What the hell can we do? That's thing's gonna eat us, I don't wanna die!"

"Hey! Stop!" Paige realized just how scared she'd been. "Phoebe, pull yourself together. Concentrate, what do we have?"

"Nothing!" Phoebe's voice rose.

"Okay, we've got to do something!" Paige screamed this at her older sister, praying that she would come up with something just like she always did when they were in a tight spot.

"What?" Phoebe's voice was insanely high. Paige had never heard her sister sound so scared, so completely terrified.

"Did you see the spirit board?"

"Yea, 'cause the first thing I think of when a tiger's about to eat me is what the spirit board said!"

"It spelled out 'innocent'."

Piper was surprised by the warmth of the demon girl's body. Most things that shimmered or blinked or otherwise GOT behind her and grabbed her must have been cold-blooded or something, but the girl felt more human than demon at this point. How could she not be a demon though?

Of course Piper had shimmered before, but she'd never seen what looked like small orbs in the shimmer. That definitely wasn't normal.

She felt a cut on her thigh. She looked down, but could barely see anything, because as the shimmer ended, they landed in a dark room. There was enough light coming through the shutters, however, for Piper to see the flash of the knife.

The girl stumbled back from Piper as if she'd been the one stabbed. "Oh…" the sound was soft, but it dropped in the silence like a stone. "I'm so sorry…" the girl said in a voice that made Piper think that she was about to cry. "I promised her that I wouldn't hurt anyone. I promised…" her voice dissolved as she backed into a corner and dropped to the floor, her face disappearing into her hands.

Although it hurt, Piper wasn't too worried about the cut; it wasn't too deep, and she could get Leo to heal it later. They had to let him come down from whitelighter meetings if a charge of his was injured. She put a hand on the girl's shoulder.

She flinched away as if Piper had cursed her to burn at the stake. "Go away," she whispered between sobs. "I was wrong to bring you here. Go home, nothing will stop you." The girl pushed herself to her feet and ran down the hallway.

Piper sighed and tried to freeze her, but the girl didn't freeze. She darted to the left, so fast it didn't look human – or demon, for that matter. She seemed to float on the dirty carpet. Piper followed her, looking inside every door that stood open before walking by. She turned the corner into another hallway lined with doors. Almost without noticing, she began to count the doors: there were 14, and all but one, the last one, were closed. As she looked inside the last door, Piper saw the demon-girl on the bed. She walked in.

The room looked like it had been a good-and-evil battle ground for centuries. There were energy ball scorch marks mixed with lingering orbs, lightening and fireball scorches, and tons of posters. On one wall, the biggest poster read, "I will not rest until the good is extinguished" and on the opposite, "I will not rest until the demon is vanquished." Piper's breath caught in her throat as she read that last part. Her sister Prue, had said that, years ago before her death.

But there was no time to cry right now. The demon-girl had that covered, and Piper saw blood on her side. She walked over to the bed, sat down on the edge, and reached out a hand to briefly touch the girl's shoulder.

This time the girl stayed, not even flinching as Piper's hand traveled down her side. She found a huge rip in the side of the girl's shirt, which might have once been white, but was now a dusty brown.

"Go." The girl's voice resonated in the silence. Piper considered doing as she said, but only for a moment.

"No," she answered, surprising herself. "You need help. Where do you keep the disinfectant?"

"Bathroom. Down the hall, take a left, and it's the first door on the left. Top cupboard. Put some on your leg." She said this like an order, and something told Piper that she shouldn't argue with this girl's orders.

She followed the directions and found the disinfectant. Next to it, she found a roll of wrap bandage. She left them on the counter, but stopped before re-entering the girl's room.

Turning back around, Piper walked back to the bathroom, starting the water running in the tub. As an afterthought, she put some disinfectant on her thigh – it was beginning to bother her.

Now, she walked back to the girl's room. Without giving her a chance to protest, Piper jumped on the bed, wrapped her arms around the girl's middle, and dragged her off of it.

The demon-girl started to kick in protest, and Piper grabbed a better hold of her around the thigh. Her fighting seemed too weak for the strength Piper could feel, which scared her. She must have lost too much blood. "Let go of me!" the girl grunted, but Piper didn't let go. She half-dragged her all the way down the long hallway and into the bathroom.

She plopped the girl into the tub, already half-full with lukewarm water that was slowly becoming colder because the new water being pumped in was cold. Piper shut it off. "What the hell…" the girl swore, again and again, as she found herself about half-submerged in the water. She began thrashing around as she tried to stand.

Piper grabbed the scissors that were lying on the counter. As she moved and the demon-girl saw them, she froze. "Put those down…" she said, a warning tone in her voice.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Piper tried to reassure her. "I promise. But then, what's a promise to a demon?" she added, mostly to herself.

But the girl heard. She looked straight at Piper and said, in a voice that cracked, "I'm not a demon. I don't know what I am."

The word dropped in the silence. "Innocent?" Phoebe asked. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, Phoebe." Paige said, hoping that she sounded more sure than she felt. "So who do you think is the innocent?"

"Does it really matter? That thing's still gonna eat us," Phoebe said.

"We might need to know!" Paige protested.

The tiger walked around the corner. "Okay, any bright ideas now?" Phoebe asked.

The pointer moved again on the spirit board. It spelled 'Help.'

"Ok, did you…"

"Yeah," Phoebe answered even before Paige finished asking.

"Who are you?" Paige asked the spirit board, louder than they'd been talking.

"Not so loud…"

"It already knows where we are!" Paige interrupted.

They both held still as 'Demon knows too,' was spelled out on the spirit board.

"Wait… how did it answer you if… is the tiger doing that?"

The tiger nodded its huge head.

"Okay…" Phoebe started to say something, then stopped and said. "So who's this demon?"

'Come out' said the tiger/spirit board. Tentatively, they did. "How do we know it's not going to eat us?" Phoebe whispered.

"It wouldn't need us to walk out from behind the couch if it was," said Paige. "I mean, seriously. White wicker against a tiger… we were dead anyway."

They stood there together, completely at the mercy of the creature.

It walked towards them. They both tensed, and Paige felt fear flow from Phoebe. The tiger kept walking until it brushed up against Paige's hand.

Instantly, she felt a jolt. And suddenly, she could feel the tiger's thoughts.

I need you to get your sister to trust me, or else I won't be able to talk to her. The voice was unspoken.

"How do you know that we're sisters?"

Phoebe jumped. Of course, Paige thought. She didn't hear the tiger's question…

I know the way sisters move together. Get her to trust me, so I can talk to you both.

"Phoebe, it's fine. It's a good tiger," said Paige.

Phoebe reached out slowly, her fingertips just brushing the tiger's sides. Suddenly she jolted, as if she was having a premonition… except that she wasn't. Paige felt the tiger's thoughts reach out to her, and felt the connection.

Come on. There's a demon. He's after me and my sisters, and now he'll be after you.

"And whose fault is that?"

"Phoebe…" Paige warned.

"What, fair question," Phoebe replied.

It's my fault. I lead him to you, but only because, with you other sister, you three would have been strong enough to defeat him. But know that Phire took you sister…

"Wait… Fire?" asked Paige.

No. Phire. With a Ph. It paused before going on. My sister.

"Your sister's the one who took Piper away?"

Yes. She must have frozen me so I don't remember anything, but I can always tell when my sister has been in the room.

"Ok, just one more thing," said Paige. "Why did she yell 'Electra' when she saw you?"

That's my name, said Electra. At least, it was my name. Now… I hope that you've got a plan. My sister fights hard, and she's got you two pegged as the people who hurt me. Add that to the fact that there's a demon on your tail, and we've got problems.

"Well, are there any other surprises you'd like to let us know before we get killed?"

"Please excuse my sister, she's a little out of her mind," Paige made the excuse. "She's been a little out of it since we vanquished her husband."

That made Electra turn her head, with an extremely human look of surprise on her face. Um… ok, I don't want to know…

"Yeah, count your blessings, Electra," Phoebe told the tiger, surprised at how easily the name rolled off her tongue. "You didn't have to live it."