Prologue
1996 New York
Phoebe Halliwell was walking back home in the snow from her new waitressing job. When she heard the soft sound of a child crying following the sound she soon found herself in an alleyway with a Dumpster. Peering behind the Dumpster she saw a little girl about eleven shivering in her flat grey gown surrounded by snow crying. Kneeling down beside her Phoebe looked around but didn't see any one nearby gently Phoebe asked "hey what's your name?" Wiping her bright green eyes the young girl looked into Phoebe's eyes and Phoebe was surprised by how much knowledge, pain and fear were in them but most of all was surprised by the question that followed "my name?" Confused by this the child possessed so much knowledge and yet didn't even know what a name was still Phoebe tried to elaborate "well what did they call you where you come from?" "Lydecker called me X5-736 but my siblings called me Venus" "well Venus I'm Phoebe" "it's nice" "thanks where are your parents?" "I don't have any?" "Okay then well why don't you come back to my place and we'll see about finding you a place to stay" the young girl then looked back into Phoebe's eye and seeing the care and compassion she had in them she agreed when they got to the apartment they had some dinner and talked for about an hour about their past Venus told Phoebe about where she came from and who she was and Phoebe told her about her fight with Prue about Roger and eventually they fell asleep on Phoebe's bed.
1 Week Later
"Hey Venus you in here?" Phoebe called as she walked in the apartment "in here" she called from the living room Phoebe found her watching cartoons from the couch sitting next to her she said "I see you've discovered the joys of cartoons" "not really it's not realistic and it's not funny" "well some stuff is realistic and funny if you want we can go the video store and get some" "can we" Kari then looked up at Phoebe with an excited gleam in her eyes that Phoebe was finding harder to resist as each day went by "yeah there's also something else I want to talk to you about" "what?" "Have you thought any more about talking to the social worker" as much as Phoebe wanted Venus to stay with her she knew that she had to see a social worker but was still surprised at her next question "why can't I stay here with you?" "I want you to stay too but we still have to see a social worker" "fine but I'm going to tell her I'm staying here" "well good for you but how about for now we hire those videos and make a big bowl of popcorn" "cool I'll just get changed" and with that she ran of to change into one of the outfits Phoebe had brought her.
5 Months Later
Venus was scared for the first time since Phoebe had adopted her, looking over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being followed she raced into her apartment building and instead of waiting for the elevator like usual she raced up the stairs into her apartment and slammed the door behind her. Leaning against it to catch her breath Phoebe came out of her bedroom to see what all the noise was about but noticing Venus's ragged appearance she immediately knew something was wrong but before she could ask Venus said "he found me" "okay then we gotta get you out of the city" she replied with a calm she didn't feel "what about you?" Venus asked concerned about her new found family "don't worry about me I'll be fine now lets go pack a few things" with that they went into Venus's room and packed up all her stuff in a back pack that was lying around then Phoebe gave her some food and money and said "when this is over and it's safe to come home go to 1329 Prescott st in San Francisco" "would that be where I write to you as well?" Phoebe looked up surprised and Venus said "there's no way I'm going out there and not keeping in touch with you your the only person who has ever loved me knowing what I am and I don't want to lose that" by then both Phoebe and Venus's checks were damp with tears reaching over to hug her Phoebe said "I know sweetie and I'm going to miss you" "I'm going to miss you too mom, so would that be where I write to?" Letting out a strained laugh at her persistence Phoebe replied "yeah that'd be the address" giving her another hug Phoebe whispered in her ear "I love you don't ever forget that" "I love you too" then breaking the hug she said "I better go" with that she climbed out the fire escape with the backpack pausing once to look once more at the life she'd had for the last few months she then took off at a speed that would be impossible for a normal human.