Author's Notes: Thanks again for the kind reviews! To anyone confused, please feel free to ask questions. Hopefully I can explain more clearly. :)

Last time:

The girls exchanged a glance that Penny noticed. But she knew better than to ask for knowledge of the future and pushed her questions to the back of her mind. "So, why are you here?"

"We're here for something you find today," replied Prue.

"Ninsun's Tear. Ring a bell?" asked Piper.

Penny had just barely opened her mouth when a whoosh of hot air, smelling of sulfur, blew through the room. "Demon!" exclaimed Phoebe, recognizing the smell of the underworld.

The Halliwell women all leaped from their seats, eyes frantically darting about in an effort to anticipate from which direction the demon would appear.

Chapter 20: Big City, Little China Encounters

"Grams, behind you!" shouted Phoebe. Penny spun around in time to see two demons, who looked like their flesh had been charred to a black crisp, each release massive fireballs in her direction. She was able to deflect the first one away toward the wall, but the second was just a hairsbreadth from landing in her gut. To her surprise, at the last moment it suddenly swung around to head for the demon from whom it had emanated.

She saw Phoebe withdraw her outstretched hands as Prue remarked, "Nice shot."

"Thanks!"

Meanwhile, Prue flung the remaining demon against the stairs. After it landed with a crack of splintering wood, Piper froze the beast, and swung around to face Penny. "You need any information out of him?"

Grams scrunched her eyebrows. "Uh, no, no," she waved her hand dismissively, "They're just lower level Clostri demons. Probably a revenge attack for the clan leader I vanquished last week. I have some extra potion to vanquish them for-"

"No need!" interrupted Piper casually as she turned back toward the demon, and flicked an outstretched hand at the it, blowing him into millions of pieces. She wrinkled her nose. "No clean up, but yeesh, it smells like rotten eggs in here!" Piper waved hand in front of her face as she turned back to face Grams. At the odd look on Penny's face Piper paused.

Grams' eyes held the shrouded expression of awe. That was a look Piper had only seen once before when she'd revealed that she and her sisters would become the Charmed Ones. Piper realized that as many times Grams had ever found out about their destiny when they traveled to the past she'd never actually witnessed them in action. And as good a handle as Penny had on her powers, her real power lay in her knowledge and her fighting spirit, not her inherent magical power.

Penny quickly snapped back to reality, and narrowed her eyes shrewdly. "You become the Charmed Ones, don't you?"

Piper and Prue just shrugged with small smirks, while Phoebe openly laughed. "Well... yeah!" she exclaimed as if it was the most obvious conclusion in the world.

Penny put her hands on her hips. "Then this must be important for you to go traveling to the past – endangering the future and all," she said, as a lecturing tone crept into her voice.

"Yeah, I'd say stopping a new Triad from altering our destiny forever to be fairly important!" shot back Prue, lightly.

"Besides," offered Piper, "At this point we're pretty sure all these events are actually a part of the original timeline."

Phoebe nodded and shrugged. "Pretty much destined."

Penny nodded, taking in the information. "Well, you girls certainly are powerful, I'll give you that much. But that doesn't mean you have the knowledge of how dire messing with the past can be."

Piper sighed the breath of impatient. "C'mon Grams, we're family. The Charmed Ones... destined to do great good and ultimate battles and yada, yada, yada. Just trust our judgment for once?"

Prue locked eyes with Grams. "Besides, you just sent us here," her brows furrowed before she added, "The, uh, other ... another you, I mean."

"Well..." began Penny hesitantly, but her tone quickly brightened up, "I guess you have a point – if I can't trust me, who can I trust?"

Prue nodded curtly. "Exactly."

"So, what are you girls here for? Something quick I hope. As much as I'd love to find out about my girls' future, I'd hate to trying explaining you to yourselves!"

The three sisters stole a momentarily amused glance with each other before Phoebe raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Indeed."

"So," began Grams as she made her way up the stairs, "Ninsun's Tear, you say?" The sisters quickly made their way up the stairs behind her.

"Right. Ever heard of it?" asked Prue.

"Not an whisper of a rumor. But that's what the book is for!" said Grams as she stopped at the attic door, and then mumbled a quick verse under her breath. The attic door gently popped open and Penny swung it fully open.

"Ha! See? I always said it had to have been magically locked!" remarked Phoebe.

"Well, yeah Pheebs, we kinda all have," said Prue, rolling her eyes and whispered to the older Piper, "I thought you said she got smarter in the future?"

"HEY! Don't make me read your thoughts about Andy, missy. Cause I so will!" replied Phoebe mischievously.

Piper held out a lecturing finger at her two chronologically younger sisters. "As senior most sister here - and believe me I'm not savoring that title - just remember I will ground you both if you don't stop!" she finished with a chuckle.

Penny, who had been listening to this squabbling without comment was about to step in as she was so used to – hell - tired, of doing until she realized how good natured it all was. Like any sisters, her three girls would always argue, but what she was hearing now had none of the venom that her girls in 1993 spat at each other. Instead of intervening she smiled to herself as she pulled the book open.

"Probably not in there, Grams," advised Piper. "Our spell sent us to the day you made the entry about Ninsun's Tears."

"You figured out my astrological hieroglyphs? I'm so proud of you!" said Penny.

Phoebe shrugged. "Uh, yeah... we did. So to speak."

Penny, who hadn't caught the evasiveness of Phoebe's phrasing, continued in her curiosity. "So, I find this...?"

"Totem."

"Right, so I find this totem today, hmm? Well then, girls, looks like you'll just have to follow me through my chores today."

"I always did wonder what Grams did all day. I mean, how did she make ends meet with no job?" remarked Phoebe.

"Oh, you'll see. Now that you know about magic, that is." replied Grams. "Our first stop would be China Town. Just as soon as I..." she stooped down to open a floorboard and pulled out a few vials of a potion which glowed a faint purple. "... get my bartering chips for the day." She stuffed them in her leather handbag and zipped it shut.

"What are those?" asked Prue.

"Potions," answered Penny.

Prue rolled her eyes. "Obviously. But what for? Are you expecting more demon attacks?"

"Hardly," said Grams. "It's not like they happen every week, darling!"

"I wish," replied Prue bitterly. Penny looked at her granddaughter, as this hint of their future was unintentionally dropped before her.

"It looks like a binding potion of some kind. Though, by the color I would say more like a... is that a power polarity switching potion?" asked Piper, breaking the silence.

Penny smiled at Piper. "Good eye! I see you really know your stuff. I always knew you'd take to potions like you had to cooking."

"So what are you going to do with it?" asked Phoebe.

"Barter," replied Penny simply. At the girls' blank looks she continued. "Consider it like a black market for the magical world. Knowledge is coveted even more than power, and certainly money, in the magical community. Your grandfather, rest his soul, being the hippy that he was didn't invest in much of any life insurance, and trying to keep you girls protected against the demons who have come after throughout your lives... well, it's a full time job. This was the best way to keep you girls both safe and well fed. I brew potions, or hunt down artifacts, or trade for them, in exchange for cash. Today I'm selling this potion to a witch in China Town."

"Huh! Too bad I didn't know about that option in my unemployed days! I could've actually paid for my clothes instead of stealing Prue's!" remarked Phoebe with a chuckle.

The sisters and Penny had soon made their way, via Grams' old station wagon, to China Town to find Penny's "contact" for the exchange. The three women trailed behind Penny as she made her way down a couple blocks, finally coming to a stop at non-nondescript storefront. Penny rapped her knuckles on the door four times in a distinct pattern before slipping a single flower petal under the door. Prue gave Grams' a look and was about to ask before Phoebe let out an exclamation.

"Paige?"

A teen aged girl with long black hair, dressed in a an olive green army coat, draped over a black tank top, shot Phoebe a look. "Yeah. Do I know you?" she replied in a huff, as she opened the door to the smoke shop next door.

Phoebe scratched the back of her neck absently in an embarrassed motion. "Uh, I, uh..."

Piper raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms in the best acting job she could muster. "We work at Harding High. Shouldn't you be in school?"

Paige snorted out a huff of air in amusement. "Shouldn't you be playing shuffle board or something?" Paige rolled her eyes and dismissed them as she entered the doorway and swung the door shut behind her.

Piper's mouth hung open in appalled surprise. "OH! She is SO hearing about this when we get back..."

Phoebe smirked. "Not any worse than I was at that age..."

Prue shrugged. "That is true," she remarked in mock contemplation. Prue ducked as Phoebe swatted at her head playfully.

"Girls," invoked Penny. "Quiet down. Mr. Quan only welcomes business here."

The three women quieted themselves as the sound of wind chimes filled the room and the silhouette of a man shown through the Chinese paper room divider. A solemn voice filled the room even before his form could be seen. "Penny – do you have it?"

Next Time: The sisters finally have a direction for ending Kalaaya's attack.