Leo sat next to Prue wondering what was happening with Piper and Cole. He missed his wife so much it hurt to even breathe. He stood and paced unconsciously his thoughts of her and Phoebe. Was she truly lost or was Cole right. Was there still a way to save her as well. He cast his eyes down at Prue's motionless figure. He only hoped they would save her in time, so that if need be, she to could say her final good bye.
He had looked at Prue's chart a thousand times and it still said the same thing. Even if she came out of her coma there was no guarantees she would make it. Her internal injuries were to sever.
--- ---- --- ----
The fog swirled around her mind like a thick pea soup. She tried to focus but everything was still a blur to her mind. She remembered saying good bye to her sister, going with Cole to the underground to vanquish hi mother and get Phoebe back and a fight but nothing after that.
She closed her eyes in hopes of pushing back the pain that throbbed in the back of her mind. But as she opened her eyes again the throbbing stayed but at least this time she had clear vision, clear vision of her sister sitting with a demon near a fire.
She closed her eyes again trying to hold back the pounding in her head. Opening them again slowly she looked up into the chocolate brown of her baby sister.
"Here drink this." Phoebe said handing Piper a wineskin.
Piper took the skin but hesitated to drink it.
"It water Piper." Phoebe said trying to once again regain her sisters' trust.
"It's the truth Piper. I filled it myself."
Piper looked past her sister and met Cole's eyes. Taking the skin she raised it to her lips. Cole she trusted, her sister was another story.
"Thank you. What happened?" she asked, her eyes till looking up at Cole.
"Raynor. When we shimmered in he set a trap for us. Like he knew when to expect us."
Piper felt her eyes involuntarily shifting towards Phoebe.
"Ok Cole I thought you said you killed Raynor for starters?" Piper asked as she pushed herself up from the floor.
"I did or I thought I did. Apparently I killed his astral self. Like Prue's power."
"And now he wants revenge by what. Turning Phoebe and killing us all." She shot back still keeping a watchful eye on her sister. But she noticed something seemed different.
"Piper I am sorry for everything." Phoebe looked for forgiveness from her sister she only remembered parts of what had happened in the last few days but it was enough of a feeling that she knew something terrible had happened and she was the cause.
Piper looked at Phoebe unsure, and then turned her eyes back to Cole.
"I can't explain it. She was the one that injured Raynor enough for us to get away." Cole explained. "Raynor missed you, but he had hit enough of the wall behind you to cause the rock slide. Some of them hit you knocking you out cold. Phoebe came in and tackled Raynor like a linebacker eyeing the quarterback. She hurt him enough he took off."
Piper absently ran her hand over the back of her head. That would explain the sharp pain that she felt when she woke up and why everything was so foggy around her.
"Piper I know you don't trust me right know after everything that has happened. But you have to believe me. Everything suddenly started to come back in small pieces. Well I say everything but it is everything I can remember. Raynor did to me what he tried to do with Cole. But he was strong enough to fight it. And the potion I made helped him, but it didn't with me. But for some reason the last few hours I seem to be fighting through the power he had used on me. I just want to get this over with, so you and I can go back home with Prue. Her and I still have to work out our own issues."
Piper heard her sisters' words and wanted to reach out to her. But inside she was scared it was all just a trick. But when Phoebe spoke of Prue it was as if she had no idea.
"Phoebe do you have any idea what happened before you came down here to be with Cole?" Piper asked hoping some how her sister would recall what had happened at the Manor.
"The last thing I remember was waking from a nightmare about being down here after I had time reset."
Piper starred back at Phoebe, "Phoebs, that was three weeks ago." Piper said in astonishment. She knew from when Cole had brought Phoebe back that night she took off, that her memory had no recollection of what had happened when she was apparently under the spell. But now as she faced it she couldn't grasp it.
"Ok what ever Raynor did we have to find a way to reverse it." Cole said as he started to pace back and forth. He had just found himself and got Phoebe back he was not about to lose her to his new enemy now.
"Raynor?" Phoebe looked at Cole and then to Piper. "As in Raynor who tried to turn you back to evil to kill our love Raynor?" she looked at Cole and Piper confused beyond words, "I thought you vanquished him.
"Apparently not. And now apparently he has his sights on you." Piper said, trying to maintain some form of calm.
Phoebe turned away not wanting to believe what she was hearing. Her boyfriends bitter enemy was trying to turn her to her other side. A side she knew she was capable of but never thought was even possible to unleash. But one thing ran back and forth in the back of her mind.
"Piper. Why are you here alone? Where's Prue?" Phoebe asked the one question that had been bothering her since her mind started to fight the spell. Had her and Prue come to such an impasse that she wasn't even willing to come and try and save her from the clutches of evil once again?
--- ---- --- ----
He watched as his master paced furiously back and forth. He knew that somewhere the plan was turning against them.
"Would you like me to find her?" he questioned hopeful he could do some good.
"No. I know where she is. And she is fighting through my power. But it will not be enough. The oldest is close to losing her life and she is close to turning completely I just need to re-focus."
One mind reached out to the other as the demon tried to once again re-capture what was rightfully theirs. An evil inside fighting for the wrong side.
"She regains control when you do that master." The minions spoke out of turn and something he wasn't sure his master wanted to hear.
"Yes. But I had no choice. His heart easily sways Cole. And to show what I have makes him an easier target."
"What of the witch's sister?"
"I am not concerned with her. Her worries are to focused on saving the youngest and returning in time to hopefully say good bye to the oldest. No, Piper Halliwell is the least of my concerns because I can feel my power now reaching out to Phoebe Soon she will be mine again and this time I will finish what I started."
--- ---- --- ----
He had stood there and watched them talking together and was more confused then ever. Making his way back to the caverns they were hiding in he stopped when he heard the scream.
Rushing the remaining distance he couldn't breath as he watched Phoebe clutching her head in pain as she rocked back and forth.
"Piper?"
"I don't know, she just started this. It is the same as the night she woke from her nightmare. She won't let me near her."
Cole took a hesitant step towards Phoebe but she only pulled further into the wall. "When did this start?"
"About ten minutes ago."
Cole stood thinking and trying to piece everything together when it suddenly hit him "Damn her."
Piper looked over at Cole as he stopped pacing. "Cole?"
"My mother. Raynor isn't playing her, she is playing him. And every time she becomes Raynor she loses her grasp on Phoebe. I tried to piece each time you told me she was herself when the spell held no power over her. Then I just saw Raynor shift into my mother. All these years. Raynor never existed. All this time it was her pretending to be him. And every time she is him she loses her hold on Phoebe."
Piper looked at him and then to her sister, "So it was your mother pretending to Raynor, pretending to be her, but it actually IS her." Piper tried to follow what Cole was saying. "Which ever way it is. Can we still get her back?" She finally asked as she cast her eyes back to Phoebe who was looking more dangerous with each passing moment.
--- ---- --- ----
Leo stepped out of the room where Prue was. She had managed to fight through her coma and look at him once, but it was that one moment everything around him started to spin, as her monitors set off the high pitched screech of everything flat-lining. Leaving him now standing in the hall as nurses and doctors rushed around her trying to save her life. A life he knew would if lost cause the loss of two more: The loss of heartbreak.
