That day Mara was glad the Sisters were busy. Piper had her inventory at the Club, Prue had a job interview, and Phoebe had classes. It also helped that Felix and Eva were busy with Coven stuff because it made venturing off on her own all the easier.

After casting a glamour spell to keep nonmagical beings from seeing her, Mara started placing items upon the Altar in the secluded area of the park. Ever since learning that Belthazor was the Demon that killed her father she had been compiling everything she could learn about them. Mara knew the spell to summon him and thus was the reason why she was there that day – She intended to summon him and vanquish him.

The last thing Mara wanted was to bring her family or the Sisters into this in case things went south, so she relied on the extra power from the Altar and the land around her to give her enough strength to do what she needed to. Mara knew how powerful the Book said Belthazor was, but she was determined especially since that day was the anniversary of her father's death.

Mara lit the final candle on the Altar and pulled out the spell she had copied down from her pocket. Just when she was about to read the words aloud, Sebastian Orbed right in front of her. This turns of events frustrated her. "What are you doing here?"

"Stopping you from doing something stupid apparently." Bash snatched out his hand and plucked the piece of paper from Mara's hand. Seeing who the spell was to summon made his eyes go wide. There was no way in hell he was going to let her go through this with. "Not happening, Sweetheart." He shoved the paper into the back pocket of his jeans to keep her from getting it back.

"Keep the spell if that's what you want. I have it memorized anyway." Mara had every intention of doing what she felt she needed to do.

"You have no idea what you're trying to do." Bash couldn't make himself any clearer. Since he couldn't say the one thing that would make her think twice about this decision, he went another route. "Eva couldn't even vanquish Belthazor. What makes you think you can?"

Mara didn't have the answer to that but it wasn't going to deter her. "I would rather try than do nothing! I won't let that monster get away with killing my father!"

Bash pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "How are you still so frustrating?" Ever since it was deemed they were to keep things professional he found everything about every conversation between them frustrating. It was like every ounce of progress they made had taken a million steps backwards to the first day they met.

Mara scoffed incredulously before speaking with sarcasm. "Well excuse me for wanting to rid the world of a monster." She waved her hand towards him saying, "I should just Push you into the Bay so you'd leave me the hell alone."

"I've tried leaving you alone, Sweetheart. I haven't been doing a very good job at it." That was certainly true. Giving Mara her space outside of when she needed him was getting harder by the day.

Mara wasn't even going to try and process what he meant by that and stayed true to the matter at hand. "I'm going to summon Belthazor and I am going to kill him. And there is nothing you can do to stop me, Sebastian."

Bash reached into his front pocket as he said, "Oh really?". He then pulled out his hand and blew the powder he gathered into Mara's face. Before Mara could even react the powder rendered her unconscious so he caught her and carefully laid her upon the ground.

As soon as she was laid upon the ground, he looked up and saw the Demon Woman coming towards them. "Are you sure Mara needs to learn this lesson?"

"Yes," The Demon Woman hissed before reaching out with her tail and wrapping it around Mara's waist. She didn't do or say anything else before engulfing herself and Mara in flames and disappearing from sight.

Bash pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed again, hoping this wasn't going to end up being one epic mistake.

When Mara awoke her head was pounding. It wasn't a feeling like when she was killed and came back but more like how she felt the first time she tried and drank too much alcohol and was hungover the following morning.

It took Mara a minute or two to get her bearings before realizing she wasn't in the park anymore. In fact she was in her room at the Manor only it wasn't exactly her room – nothing in there was her own. "Sebastian!" she shouted, "You better get your Whitelighter ass down here right now and tell me what you did!"

The next thing she knew door opened and Eva walked into the room with a surprised look on her face. "Mara? How did you get here?"

"Did Mara shimmer away from Penny again?" Lincoln asked as he entered the room behind Eva then saw it wasn't their young daughter. Seeing older Mara there made him smile. "Hello again, Dove."

Mara had no idea what was going on exactly but she didn't care. She bolted up from the floor and went straight to Lincoln, hugging him tight.

Lincoln laughed as he hugged her back. "This is quite the greeting." When they pulled apart he smiled at his little girl. "What brings you to the past this time?"

"I – I don't know," Mara admitted. "My Whitelighter blew some knockout powder on me or something and the next thing I knew I was here."

"Your Protector did this to you? Now why would they do that?" Eva couldn't figure that one out. "Wait, was that who you were shouting for?"

"Yeah. Sebastian." Mara caught a look in the eyes of her parents and narrowed her own at them. "What's that look for?"

"Nothing," Lincoln almost laughed. "It's just your either very mad at him or not at the point where you call him Bash yet."

"I never call him 'Bash'." Mara never intended to either.

"You will." Lincoln replied with an affirmative nod, only to get jabbed in the ribs by Eva's elbow. He realized his error in that moment. "Too much?"

"With how much time traveling our Dove does, who knows what part of her timeline she's in yet." Eva turned to her daughter. "Where exactly are you in your timeline?"

Mara didn't hear the question because her eyes were locked onto the calendar on the wall. "Is that the actual date?" She went straight to the calendar and tapped on what the day was in her time.

"Yes, why?" Lincoln's voice sounded a bit concerned because he had a feeling they were going to get a hint as to why Mara had been sent back in time.

"I have a chance to fix things. I'm going to fix them." That was all Mara said to them before darting out of the bedroom to head up to the Attic.

Neither Lincoln of Eva had any idea what she was talking about so they both went after her. "Fix what, Dove?" Lincoln called after her as they, too, headed for the Attic.

"I'm not going to tell you," Mara replied as she started flipping through the Book. "The last time I told you, you didn't want to hear it then made mom cast a spell to make you guys forget I even went back in time and warned you."

Eva went over to Mara and the Book and slapped her hand down on it to keep Mara from flipping any more pages. "If that's what happened before then you absolutely have to tell us. What are you trying to stop?"

Mara still didn't want to tell them but maybe they'd feel differently. Maybe they'd let her change things, maybe they'd let her vanquish Belthazor before he could kill her father. Mara looked right at her father as she said, "The Demon Belthazor is going to kill you tonight, but now that I'm here it's not going to happen."

Lincoln's face hardened as he heard that name. "Never speak that name again, Mara."

Eva looked at Lincoln in a way to tell him not to say another word.

Mara looked at her parents oddly. She had a feeling that there was more than met the eye there. "Aside from the fact that he's hunted mom down and killed you both, what am I missing here?"

Lincoln looked Mara's face over to see if she truly didn't know and felt a bit better to see she did not. "Nothing. I simply thought we were finally rid of that Demon, but he will never stop coming will he?" He looked at his wife with those words.

Eva looked away from Lincoln and turned to Mara. "Sweetheart, I understand completely why you would want this to change but…."

Mara cut her off there because she didn't want to hear it. "No! There's no 'but' here! I was going to summon Belthazor on this day in my time to try and vanquish him for killing you but now here I am. Don't you get it? I can change things!"

Eva was about to object but Lincoln spoke before she could utter a word.

"We'll help you, Dove." He gave Eva a look that told her to trust him. "But if we do this it's on our terms, understood?"

Mara let out a breath of relief because she truly believed that things would be changed and they would succeed. "Deal."

Lincoln nodded in a 'good' manner. "We'll need items for the summoning spell. Head down and see what Penny has and what we need."

Mara hugged her father again before darting out of the Attic to do just that.

Once Mara was out of earshot, Eva went right over to Lincoln and spoke in an urgent but hushed tone, "If we help her change something this drastic who knows what it will do to the future?" She realized how that may have sounded and made sure to add in, "Do not take that as I want you to die and him to live because I do not want that. I could never want that."

Lincoln didn't take it that way whatsoever and kissed his wife before replying. "I know, my love, to all of the above. I only told her that we would help to keep her from going off on her own. We need to keep the timeline intact despite how much I wish we didn't need it."

"Damn time travel," Eva practically hissed.

Lincoln kissed her forehead before saying, "It's a mighty finicky thing indeed."

The plan and trap was set. Lincoln gave Eva and Mara some of his blood to use as an incentive while summoning Belthazor and they would cast the spell at the Altar just as Mara intended to in the future. Eva would cast the spell summon and Mara would lay in wait to cast the spell to vanquish once Belthazor appeared. At least that was the plan they told Mara. They didn't tell her that Lincoln would be there as well to ensure that the timeline did not change.

After the plan was made, the three of them had a wonderful day together. Mara believed they'd be able to have so many more like that in the future where Eva and Lincoln knew it'd be their last so they made it the best possible right until the sun started to set. Now it was time to put their differing plans into action.

The moon was high when Eva and Mara arrived at the Altar. As much as Eva hated what had to be done, the timeline had to be preserved so she played along and sent Mara into the nearby tree line. Once Mara was out of sight, Eva cast the summoning spell.

Moments after the last word was uttered Belthazor appeared in front of her. His red and black skin almost seemed to glisten in the moonlight while his pitch black eyes didn't move from Eva's face. At least that was the case until he heard a voice coming from behind him.

Belthazor turned around and conjured up and energy ball to use upon the approaching Witch that was trying to cast a spell upon him but he didn't use it – not when he saw her eyes. When she finished reciting the spell, Belthazor roared because he was ignited with fire only for it to soon extinguish and not leave a mark.

"Oh no," Mara said aloud before using her power to Push him away from them.

Eva ran to stand with Mara and keep her from doing anything else, but of course Mara didn't know that. "We need to go. Now!"

Mara wasn't going anywhere. "We don't need the spell! I have something else!" Mara held up her hand an tapped into her rage to conjure up the swirling blue energy-fireball.

Eva saw Mara conjure this and gasped as she smashed her hand on top of Mara's to diffuse it. "Never conjure that again, Mara! Never!"

Before Mara could question this, she heard Belthazor roar in their direction.

Belthazor started making his way towards them but stopped when Lincoln joined them. He would deal with the Witches later.

"No!" Mara screamed out and tried to intervene but Eva held her back. "What are you doing?!"

"Time travel is a finicky thing, Dove. We have to do everything we can not to change things. If this is what happened then it has to happen. I hate it, but I'm so sorry." Eva didn't let go of Mara, despite how much she desperately wanted to.

Mara gasped and sobbed as she looked over to see Belthazor move towards Lincoln. "No!"

Lincoln knew this was his time and accepted it. Even as Belthazor conjured up an energy ball he didn't show fear. "They will never be yours."

Belthazor's reaction to this was throwing the energy ball right at Lincoln, thus killing him instantly. With him out of the way, he turned back towards the Witches.

Mara screamed when she saw Lincoln fall and started to shake when she felt Eva's grip loosen on her. "Mom? No, no, no!" She dropped to her knees when Eva's body fell to the ground and faded away. "NO!", Mara screamed out. This wasn't supposed to happen. Why did this have to happen like this?

Mara clenched her fists and stood up to face Belthazor. For a split second she thought she saw a look of regret on his face but it must have been a trick of the moonlight. She screamed out as she thrust her hands forward, sending Belthazor straight back into a tree so hard that the trunk cracked and all the trees around them lost their leaves. Mara intended to vanquish Belthazor one way or another but he Shimmered away before she even had a chance.

Now that he was gone and her parents were gone, Mara dropped to her knees and screamed before blacking out. This was not how things were supposed to go.

When Mara came to, she was in her bedroom in her own time. She bolted upright on the bed and found Sebastian standing there at the window. "Sebastian…"

Bash turned around and saw that Mara was about to break down, so he went straight to Mara's side and held her close. "I know. I'm sorry."

"Why was I sent back if I couldn't change anything?!" Mara sobbed as she held onto him.

Bash, against his better judgement, kissed Mara's head before answering. "Some things can't be change."

Mara pulled back and shook her head a couple of times. "I can't take this anymore."

"Don't say that." Bash gently lifted Mara's chin so she'd look at him. "You are capable of so much, Sweetheart. How can you not see that? After everything how can you still not see how special you are?"

Mara didn't know how to answer that question but a part of her didn't want to. She was tired of feeling angry and sad and so many other things that chipped away at her day after day. Mara wanted to feel happy and loved and all the good to fill cracks left by the bad. That's what made Mara do what she did next. It probably wasn't the most healthy thing for her to do emotional wise but it's what she felt she wanted and needed in that moment.

Without thinking about any potential consequence, Mara grabbed hold of Sebastian's shirt and kissed him deeply.

Bash got caught up in the moment and kissed her in return, something he knew he'd been wanting to do for a very long time but kept fighting it. He was fighting it even then when he pulled back and said, "We can't."

"I'm not asking you to marry me, Bash." Mara didn't even realize she had just called him 'Bash' despite how right it felt in that moment.

Bash knew this was a bad idea on so many levels but that didn't stop him – it seemed like nothing could. After running his hand through Mara's hair, he placed his hand on the back of her head and brought her close to him. When their lips met again that was the beginning of something very special between them, only neither of them realized just how special it'd turn out to be…

End Season 2 Episode 16