AN: Thanks to piperloveleoalways, WelshCanuck, Jedi Alanna, rikkukirst and lizardmomma for your reviews of Chapter 27; I truly appreciate all of your kind words. :)

Chapter Twenty Eight

Prue couldn't afford to waste any time. As soon as Leo orbed her back to the hotel, she grabbed the Book of Shadows from its hiding place under her bed. The vanquishing potion for Tarquin was safely in her purse; now she needed a spell to send her back in time. She scanned each page eagerly for any mention of time travel. As page after page provided no help, however, she began to feel uneasy. She believed this feeling was called "butterflies in your stomach", but the phrase seemed ill-fitting. Butterflies were small and cute. She liked butterflies. No, there weren't butterflies in her stomach; there were snakes, coiling and uncoiling their long, scaly bodies, gliding through her intestines. But why?

She blamed the Book. The pictures of demons and warlocks and other things that went bump in the night were vivid enough to provide years of nightmares, and the descriptions of their dastardly deeds would make anyone feel ill. Yet she sensed that it was more than that. She was afraid. Not of the demons, but of something much worse, something she couldn't articulate. But there's no time to be afraid, she rebuked herself.

She continued flipping through the Book, each time fervently hoping the next page would be the right one. Finally she found a spell that mentioned turning back time. Her joy quickly vanished when she saw it was a spell to un-do a bond. That wouldn't work. She brushed aside her disappointment and growing fear, pretending that they didn't exist. Soon after she found a spell that talked about removing the chains of time and space. She frowned as she realized that it would return her to a past life. Wasn't there anything in this enormous book that could help her? What if she was attacked before she could find something? Swallowing her frustration, she flipped to the next page and saw a spell written in her grandmother's handwriting. The handwriting gave her an idea.

Mom, Grams, she silently prayed. I need your help. I don't know how much time I have before some demon finds me. I need to find a spell to restore the timeline. Please help me. As if in response, the Book's pages started flipping on their own.

When they stopped a few seconds later, the Book revealed a page titled "How to Restore the Timeline". There was a spell in her grandmother's writing, and, at the bottom of the page, a note of encouragement in her mother's writing: "We're so proud of you, my darling." Thank you, Prue said mentally, forcibly holding back tears. She read the spell to herself. This is it, she thought. I say this spell, vanquish Tarquin, and the world is as it should be. Her scarcely repressed fear escaped to the surface. But what if something goes wrong? What if–?

Prue screamed. A man had suddenly appeared in the room. His hair was silver, and his eyes were dark and cold, devoid of all emotion. His smile reminded Prue of a hungry crocodile she had seen on a nature show. He was dressed all in black. "Your fear," the man sniffed in the air as if he were standing in a garden, admiring a rose, "called out to me." He waved his hand in front of her face to learn her innermost thoughts. "Your greatest fear is that you'll fail. That you won't be able to restore the timeline, and your sisters and your precious innocents will be dead. Your ancestors have been witches for centuries, but it will all end with you. You'll disappoint them all."

In her mind's eye Prue saw herself standing alone in a vast cemetery. Hundreds of gray granite tombstones dotted the lush green landscape. Each grave held the bones of one of her ancestors; the history of her family was buried under her feet. She stood before two fresh graves–the graves of her sisters. Their spirits suddenly appeared before her. They looked like Piper and Phoebe, but the kindness and goodness they possessed in life was gone. Only anger remained. "We'll never forgive you," they said in unison. "You let us die. You killed us."

"Nooooo!" Prue's mind screamed.

Barbas, the demon of fear, only laughed. "That's right. Feed me your fear."

In Prue's mind the spirits of her sisters tormented her. "You're our older sister," Piper's spirit said. "You were supposed to protect us."

"But you didn't," Phoebe's spirit added. "You failed us. And them." She waved her hand to motion to the graves surrounding them. The spirits of their ancestors began rising up from the earth.

"You let my little girls down!" their mother yelled.

Their grandmother appeared alongside their mother. "You've destroyed the Halliwell line!" she raged.

With each passing second more and more spirits started screaming insults at Prue, condemning her as a failure. Prue clapped her hands over her ears to block out the noise, but the voices would not be denied. Their shouts penetrated her entire body, tearing apart cells, tissues, and organs from the inside. She fell to the ground in agony. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't do anything. She had tried to help her sisters and the world but all was lost. There was nothing to do now but die. She was starting to accept the inevitability of her death when Piper's spirit materialized before her. This Piper wasn't angry or spiteful. Prue knew intuitively that this was the spirit of the comatose Piper, the real Piper.

"Don't give up!" her sister pleaded. "This isn't real. You can still save us. Please, Prue, don't give up! Let go of your fear!" Piper's spirit showed Prue long distant memories. She saw herself holding baby Piper for the first time, being careful not to drop her, catching toddler Piper before she fell down the stairs, warning young Piper not to touch the stove, and advising teenage Piper not to date an older guy. The memories reminded her that she had always known how to protect her sisters. She was good at it. She could do it then and she could do it now. They had come too far for her to let fear get in the way. She forced herself to stand up. Boldly she faced the images of her ancestors. "I'm not afraid anymore!" she yelled. "I won't fail you!" The images disappeared, and Prue found herself back in the hotel room. Barbas had failed, not her. He screamed in anger and vanished.

Prue took several deep breaths to calm herself. Okay, she thought. No more worries, no more doubts. I can do this. Without further hesitation she read the spell from the Book.

I call upon the ancient powers

To bless me with their might.

Send me back through time and space

So I can set things right.

When she finished reading the spell, she was transported to the attic of the Manor. She saw a familiar face standing at the podium, saying a spell to hide the Book.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Cole, please let me go." Phoebe was worried for herself- she had never been trapped in the underworld like a fairy tale damsel in distress before- but she was even more worried about Prue. If Cole was right, Prue was in danger. She had already lost one sister; she couldn't imagine losing both.

"I told you that the Source is after you. I have to protect you. I won't let him hurt you, Phoebe. I love you."

"And I love my sisters! I can't sit here and let Prue fight him alone. Please, Cole, if you really love me, take me to Prue."

"'If' I really love you?!" Cole yelled. "I've turned my back on every demon I've ever met!I've made myself an enemy of the Source, the most powerful demon in the underworld, for YOU! You're all I have left...and when the Source kills Prue, I'll be all you have left." He tried to embrace her, but she backed away.

She was angry at Cole, but even angrier at herself. Cole had betrayed his friends, but she had betrayed her sisters. She had refused to help them, not wanting to lose Prue, Cole, and her daughter. Now she knew that Cole was evil and their daughter was fictional. Now she was going to lose Prue anyway–and she had already lost Piper. And what about all the innocents they were destined to save?

Phoebe had considered herself an expert in the art of screwing up before, but getting caught sneaking out of the house, dating a boy on the wrong side of the law, or crashing a car into a tree were nothing compared to this. She had been the one who had accepted their powers and destiny most readily. She had loved the idea of protecting the innocent and destroying evil: Super Phoebe to the rescue. Yet she had been the one to ruin everything. How could she ever forgive herself? How could she live knowing that she was responsible for so many deaths? She was the most worthless–

Stop it, her inner psychologist warned. All this self pity will get you nowhere. You can still save Piper and the innocents. You can find a way out of here and restore the timeline yourself. You can fix your mistake.

Yes, I can fix my mistake, Phoebe decided. And I will. It's not too late to save the day. I can still make my sisters and our witch ancestors proud.

While Phoebe had been thinking about what a miserable person she was, Cole had been watching her, silently studying her facial expressions and wondering what thoughts had caused them. "You hate me, don't you?" He waited for an answer, but Phoebe wouldn't give him one. She didn't want to waste time talking. She needed every available brain cell to plan her escape.

Realizing that he wasn't getting a response, Cole continued. "I'm sorry about your sisters. I know how important they were to you, but it's better this way, you'll see. They always disapproved of us. They wanted you to sacrifice your happiness for them. Now that they're gone, no one will stop us from being together."

Before Phoebe could fully register the horror of what he had said, a sinister laugh reverberated around them. "What was that?" she asked.

Before Cole could answer, a robed figure materialized in front of them. "I never knew that you were such a romantic, Belthazor."

The Source smiled menacingly at Cole and Phoebe.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Leo sat by Piper's hospital bed, holding one of her hands in his, using his other hand to stroke her long, beautiful hair. As he watched the woman he loved slowly dying, he felt as if he were dying with her. "Everything will be okay," he told her, ignoring the tears which raced each other down his cheeks. "Prue will restore the timeline, and everything will be as it was." It had to be. Leo couldn't accept the possibility that Prue would fail. That he would lose Piper forever. That their son Wyatt would never exist. That he had really lost everything that ever mattered to him. No, he wouldn't accept that. Prue would restore the timeline, and everything would be fine.

Still, the sight of Piper in this hospital, motionless, wires sticking out of her arms, was unbearable. He tried to heal her again. It didn't work, just as it hadn't the last ten times. He knew it wouldn't, but he had to do something. He felt useless. What good were his powers if they couldn't help the people he loved?

He wondered if there was anything he could have done to prevent it. Maybe he could have gone with her to Windbury's. He imagined Duane pulling out a gun and aiming it at Piper. He imagined himself tackling him to the ground. He wasn't an aggressive or violent person, but when his family was threatened he would do anything to protect them. But he hadn't protected Piper. She was in a coma instead of in his arms. How could this have happened? But it will be okay, he kept telling himself. Prue will restore the timeline and

He suddenly felt guilty. He wanted Prue to succeed so that he would have his family back. Yet restoring the timeline meant returning to a world where Prue was dead. He had let Prue sacrifice herself to save Piper. He recalled how angry Piper had been in the original timeline when he had saved her instead of Prue. There were days when he thought that she would never forgive him. Would she be angry if she knew that he had sent her sister to restore the timeline alone? Of course she would. She would be furious and heartbroken, and he would hold her and comfort her and love her and wish that he could heal emotional pain as easily as he could physical pain. She would be angry, but she would be alive. I love you so much, Piper Halliwell, he thought. Please forgive me.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Tarquin smiled as he walked through the lobby of San Francisco Memorial. When he had heard about Piper's shooting, it hadn't taken him long to learn which hospital she had been taken to. Surely her sisters would be there with her, and he could kill all three of them at once.

When he came to the door of Piper's room, he stood outside and listened. He heard Leo's voice telling Piper that everything would be okay. You don't know how wrong you are, whitelighter, he thought.

He listened for several minutes longer but didn't hear any other voices. He dared to look through the small window in the door. He saw Leo stroking Piper's hair, and the sight filled him with rage. Why should Leo get to be with his love, when Tarquin's had been taken from him? Suddenly he didn't care that Prue and Phoebe weren't there. Piper was, and Piper was the one who had blown up his love, his precious Aryn. Now she would be the one to die. And as for Leo...

He threw open the door and hurled a potion at Leo. The whitelighter seemed unconcerned for his own safety. He tried to shield Piper's body with his own, but once the potion hit him he couldn't move a muscle. The paralysis potion had worked beautifully.

"Hello, Leo." Tarquin watched with pleasure as Leo struggled unsuccessfully against the potion's effects. "I must admit that I was a little disappointed at first to find only the two of you here, but I realize now how much fun this will be. I saw my love being murdered, Leo. Now you will, too."

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, please let me know. :)