AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, Christine Ruud, WelshCanuck, -0-charmed-freak-0-, Charmed225, lizardmomma, and Jedi Alanna for your reviews of Ch. 20. You rock!

Chapter Twenty One

"This is bad. REALLY bad," Phoebe said as the living room filled with demons and other monsters.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Piper snapped.

"All right, we can do this," Prue said, struggling to keep her voice calm. "We're the most powerful witches ever, right? Right?"

"Right," Piper and Phoebe mumbled. The three sisters stood in a line. Leo stood on one end, next to Piper. Cole stood on the other end, next to Phoebe. They stared at the Underworld Army. The Army stared back, sizing up the sisters and their companions.

"So these are the Mighty Charmed Ones?" A voice from the middle of the army rang out. "They don't look so mighty to me." Laughter spread through the ranks.

"Is that Belthazor?" A second voice asked.

"It is!" Another answered. "He's betrayed us!" The demon who spoke surged forward, ready to strike, but Cole was ready. He threw a fireball which instantly engulfed his would-be attacker.

So it began.

The sisters dodged a volley of fireballs, energy balls, lightning bolts and athames. Prue sent her attackers flying through the air into the walls of the Manor. Piper froze anyone she could. Phoebe, wishing now more than ever for an active power, had to rely on more traditional fighting skills. She kicked the first demon who came towards her in the groin. When he doubled over in pain, Cole finished him off with a fireball. Leo was too busy trying to avoid darklighter arrows to be able to help the sisters . At one point in the fighting, Leo saw Tarquin grabbing a lamp, moving it out of harm's way. What was that? Leo wondered. Another darklighter arrow flew past him, missing him by mere centimeters. He would worry about Tarquin later. If there was a later.

Meanwhile, Piper had just ducked behind a frozen grimlock to avoid a energy ball. The grimlock was hit instead. Piper had a jolt of inspiration. "Prue, Phoebe, use them against each other!" she yelled. Taking her sister's advice, Prue used her power to deflect a fireball into another demon. She then reversed the course of an athame so that it struck its owner, and sent another attacker flying backwards to topple other demons. Phoebe, seeing a demon and a warlock on either side of her, preparing for the kill, moved at exactly the right moment, causing the two to accidentally kill each other. The sisters' tactics slowed the Underworld Army, but there were simply too many of them.

"We need to get out of here NOW!" Phoebe yelled.

"I'll take Phoebe," Cole volunteered. He took her hand and the couple shimmered out of sight.

"Piper! Prue! Take my hands!" Leo yelled. As soon as he felt the sisters' hands in his, Leo orbed the three of them out of there. The sisters watched their home, now overrun with an army of evil, disappear before their eyes.

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"Belthazor?! I can't believe I'm dating a demon!" Phoebe yelled.

"A little louder, Phoebs. I don't think everyone in the hotel heard you," Piper teased. Since the Manor was besieged, the sisters, Leo, and Cole had rented a couple hotel rooms.

"Former demon," Cole corrected her. "You saw how the other demons attacked me, and how I attacked them back. I'm not on their side anymore. I'm on yours."

Phoebe wanted to believe that Cole was sincere, but a part of her remained suspicious. Cole could see that his love wasn't entirely convinced.

"Let me earn your trust again. Leo and I will go back to the Manor and bring the Book of Shadows back."

"Why does Leo have to go?" Piper asked.

"Because Cole can't touch the Book," Leo answered. "I can grab it while Cole takes care of any demons guarding it."

"If we bring back the Book, will you trust me? All of you?" Cole asked, his eyes focusing on Prue, who clearly mistrusted him. The sisters nodded. The two men then orbed/shimmered back to the Manor.

"Prue, please don't say I told you so," Phoebe begged. "You were right about Cole being a demon. You're always right. I promise that I'll never doubt you again. Will you forgive me?"

Prue hugged her youngest sister. "Of course. And who could blame you? He is kinda cute."

"Hey!" Phoebe pretended to be angry. "Back off! You've got your own man."

"Do you think Leo will be okay?" Piper asked, not having paid much attention to her sisters' conversation. "I mean, he doesn't have powers like Cole."

Prue and Phoebe exchanged knowing glances.

"What?" Piper looked at each sister in turn. "I can't be concerned about our whitelighter?"

"Are you in love with Leo?" Phoebe asked.

"What?!" Piper stammered. "No," she lied.

"Too bad," Phoebe replied. "Because he's definitely in love with you."

"Why do you say that?" Piper asked, hoping it sounded like a casual question.

"Lots of things. The way he looks at you. The way--" Phoebe stopped mid-sentence when she saw Cole and Leo returning. When the two men had fully materialized, the sisters could see that Leo was holding the Book.

"The Manor is still crawling with demons," Cole reported."They're staking it out, waiting for you to come back. It wasn't easy to get this," he said, motioning towards the Book.

"I knew you could do it," Phoebe gushed, giving him a kiss.

Prue took the Book from Leo and started flipping through it.

"Anything on vanquishing a whole army?" Piper asked as she looked over Prue's shoulder.

"That's not what I'm looking for," Prue replied.

"What are you looking for, then?"

"This," Prue answered. "The vanquishing potion for a timejumper. If we go back in time and vanquish Tarquin before he changes the timeline, the army will never exist."

"You and Andy will also be dead," Phoebe pointed out.

"So will all the demons we originally vanquished, while all the innocents we saved will be alive."

"But Prue--" Piper began.

"If we don't restore the timeline," Prue interrupted, "that army will kill us all sooner or later."

"We don't know that," Piper argued. "There has to be another way."

"There isn't," Prue said firmly. "We have to do this."

"We don't want to lose you, Prue," Phoebe said through tears. "You've been a mom and a sister to us. You've always been there when we needed you. Always. We love you."

" I love you guys, too." Prue was crying now.

"Then don't leave us," Piper pleaded, brushing away her own tears.

"I don't want to. Believe me, I don't. But it's the only way to save the innocents we're supposed to save. It's the only way I can save you both." For several minutes, the sisters held each other without saying a word. Leo and Cole excused themselves to give them some privacy.

"What do we have to do?" Phoebe said finally.

"We just have to make this potion and say a spell to go back in time. I looked at the ingredients. They're all common things I can buy at a grocery store. I'll go shopping tomorrow morning, we can make the potion tomorrow afternoon, and restore the timeline tomorrow night."

"So soon?" Piper asked.

"The sooner we do this, the less time that army has to kill us," Prue answered. "Tomorrow night, then?" Her sisters didn't answer. "We have to do this. It's our only choice. Tomorrow night, then?"

Piper and Phoebe felt physically ill at the thought, but they nodded.

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"I underestimated them," The Source said as he walked around Halliwell Manor. "Although they are inexperienced, together they are powerful."

"What will we do, then?" One of his minions asked. The Source couldn't be bothered to remember his name.

"What victorious leaders have done for millennia: divide and conquer." The Source smiled. By tomorrow night, all three witches would be dead.

Thanks for reading; all comments are greatly appreciated. :)