A/N: Ah, yes, slowly the story is drawing near a conclusion now. I have the end few chapters roughly planned out, all ready to be written. Anyway now, on with weaving the magic!

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A glass vase shattered.

The pieces of glass had barely begun to move outwards from the point of explosion, when they froze in mid-air. The sphere of fragmented glass hung there, immobile, suspended in still-animation. Two sets of eyes peered apprehensively at the remainders of said vase.

'Well, looks like you're getting the hang of this now,' commented Melinda dryly, a grin on her face.

'I wonder if I can un-freeze it again,' said Bekky, flicking her hands out in much the same way as she had seconds ago. Sure enough, the shards of glass sprung to life again, exploding outwards once more until the force of gravity overtook them and sent them hurtling for the tile floor below. Bekky smirked. 'I guess so.'

'Question is - what are your other powers?' asked Melinda.

The two girls had been practicing their powers for a good half hour now, Melinda running through her exploding, telekinetic, healing, sensing and orbing powers, while they tried to detect Bekky's new powers. Unfortunately, detecting powers was easier said then done, as so far they'd only located one power - freezing time.

Deciding to try a different method, Melinda threw out her hand, telekinetically latching on to a porcelain ornament of an elephant sitting on a shelf in the corner of the room, and sending it sprawling straight at Bekky. Melinda's younger cousin jumped in fright, squealing as instead of landing back on the ground, she found herself suspended above the ground, hovering - so to speak.

'What the hell?' exclaimed Melinda. The tinkling of china alerted her to the telekinetically abandoned elephant, now lying in many pieces on the ground beside the remainders of the glass vase. But that had lost her attention now, as she gaped fish-like at Bekky.

'Um… get me down?' asked Bekky, trying to sound as calm as one could be when one was being held above the ground with no strings attached.

'How did -'

'What is going on here?' came a new voice. Both Bekky and Melinda turned to face Phoebe, who was standing in the doorway from the lounge room. Concentration averted, Bekky found herself landing on the ground with a thump.

'Hey mum, we were just practicing our powers, like Aunt Piper told us to,' said Bekky. 'I can make things explode!' she added as an afterthought.

'Hey girls. How are you -'

Melinda and Bekky whirled around to face the kitchen doorway, coming once more face-to-face with Phoebe.

'Oh my gosh,' exclaimed the Phoebe standing in the kitchen doorway, staring across at herself. Melinda and Bekky stared from a shell-shocked Phoebe in the kitchen entrance, to a stern, questioning Phoebe in the lounge room doorway. Phoebe just continued to gape at herself, before finally stammering, 'She's me! Paige, Piper, I think you should see this.'

'See what?'

There was the scraping of chairs against aged tiles, before Piper and Paige appeared next to Phoebe in the kitchen doorway. They made quite a scene, all three of them standing side-by-side gawking at the Phoebe across the room. Melinda and Bekky just watched on, both girls confused and speechless.

'Um…' said Paige, trying to find words for it. Eventually she settled on directing her question at the girls. 'Which one of you… made… made that?'

Melinda and Bekky looked at each other, before shrugging their shoulders.

'Not me,' they chorused in unison.

'Then… then…' Still Paige struggled for words. 'Then… is it… demonic?'

The Phoebe across the room, whom had been concentrating on the children, only now seemed to realize the presence of the three adults. Looking up at the Halliwell sisters, Phoebe's stern demeanor melted, until she was left with a rather sheepish grin on her face, her eyes sparkling mischievously.

'Oops,' she muttered. With that she began to fade and blur, becoming continually transparent until with a small 'pop' she disappeared altogether, leaving all five people in the room standing open-mouthed, and wondering if they had really seen anything at all, or if perhaps the light had just been playing tricks on them.

There was an extremely pregnant pause, before Piper broke the silence.

'Did I… did I just see what I thought I saw?' she questioned. Four nodding heads answered her question, and so she continued. 'And… and it wasn't Bekky or Melinda? But then… what the hell.'

Indeed, 'what the hell' seemed to be about the only statement that seemed to fit the current situation, given what they had all just witnessed - or supposedly witnessed.

In a daze, the five members of the Halliwell family made their way back into the kitchen, each drawing up a chair and sitting themselves in it.

'Wow, that makes me feel so much better, something else demonic to deal with,' commented Phoebe sarcastically.

'Let's just concentrate on one thing at a time,' said Paige. 'The first issue is getting Kaitlyn back. Melinda and Bekky, you two go and practice some more, we need to be as ready as we can get. Piper you never brought the Book of Shadows back down before, where is it?'

'Oh, uh… there was nothing in it,' said Piper, knowing that as soon as her sisters read the prophecy of The Star of Ivy they would want some explanations, mainly about the child 'born of the dead'.

Paige's piercing eyes stared skeptically at Piper.

'Liar,' commented Paige swiftly. 'Book of Shadows,' she then called, holding her palms up flat. Momentarily there was nothing, before blue orbs gathered above her hands, melding into the Book of Shadows.

It was still open to Prue's entry about The Star of Ivy, and Piper could do nothing but sit and watch as Paige read over the information. When Paige had finished she handed the book to Phoebe to read, and fixed her sister with a puzzled look.

'What was so important about that entry that you felt the need to try and hide it?' questioned Paige.

'Oh… um…' Piper stalled, trying to think of an excuse. She needn't have bothered.

'It fits!' exclaimed Phoebe. 'This has to be it! 'One child shall be born of darkness,' - well, okay, that line doesn't fit, unless Ben really is family. But then, 'Another shall be born of light,' surely they're talking about Melinda? After all, Leo was a whitelighter.'

'What do you mean was?' questioned Piper, unable to help herself. 'Is.'

Phoebe continued as if she had not heard.

''One shall be born of hope,' Bekky perhaps? Or… wait… five kids… Kaitlyn? Sophie? 'The fourth shall be born of innocence, but quickly slip away,' no, my mistake, that one is Sophie. 'The last child… born of the dead,' - now, you know, it's funny that the book should say that, Piper.'

Phoebe tore her eyes away from the book, to gaze at her older sister before continuing.

'I remember Cole telling me something, about ten years ago now, something you let slip about Kaitlyn being Prue's baby. Please, explain, because despite me not believing it at the time, the small fact seems to have an awful lot of evidence behind it now.'

Piper stared back at her sister, trying to determine just how angry Phoebe would be once she knew the entire truth. Piper had known that her sisters would find something odd about those lines of the riddle; she had known that they would start asking questions. It came as a surprise to her though, to learn that Cole had told Phoebe of what she had let slip in her hysteria, down in the Shrock's caves all those years ago.

Taking a deep breath, Piper set the truth loose.

'Cole was right.'

Those three little words seemed to spark a fire within Phoebe. Her eyes flashed dangerously, as she glared accusingly at her sister.

'Kaitlyn is Prue's baby, then. How could you have kept that quiet, all these years? How could you not have told us, we're your bloody sisters! Did your husband even know, hmm? Did Leo know? And does Kaitlyn know - does she know that you're not truly her mother? Does she know that her real mother is dead? How could you not have told us? Is this why you walked out of Halliwell Manor all those years ago? You didn't want to tell us? Why?'

Phoebe's voice sounded betrayed, and she seemed to slump down into the chair after her little outburst, exhausted.

Piper continued to breathe deeply, fixing her gaze on the far wall.

'Yes, Kaitlyn is Prue's baby. I couldn't tell you, both Prue and Andy made me promise I wouldn't. She would have been in grave danger, had anyone but me known of her true parentage. As it is she got landed in danger, you nearly left her with the Shrock's. My big sister's baby, the only living connection I had left with Prue. You nearly took that away. How could I stay, fearing, knowing that lightning could strike twice, and I could loose Prue and Andy's little girl forever? I couldn't, I had to keep her safe, I couldn't loose her like I lost Prue and Andy.'

An anguished look had spread across Piper's face, telling the truth was a lot harder then it sounded. Desperation shone from the depths of her eyes, as she waited for her sisters' opinions.

Phoebe just sighed and shook her head.

'Fine,' she commented dryly.

Paige, meanwhile, was gazing at Piper with newfound respect.

'It must have taken a lot of guts to have done that,' said Paige softly, a small smile flickering upon her face. 'A lot of courage, to just give everything that was ever familiar to you up, for the protection of one child. Well done.'

Piper smiled gratefully at her youngest sister.

'Thanks Paige,' she said. 'Only… where do we go from here?'

Paige didn't answer that question - she didn't get a chance.

A sudden chill crept down her spine, causing Piper to jump. Fear flashed in her eyes, as she ran to the entrance to the sunroom. Paige followed her sister, leaving Phoebe to dwell in her thoughts. Gut-instinct told both sisters what had happened before they saw the proof in front of their eyes.

The sunroom was empty.

Piper murmured softly, confirming what they both knew in their hearts, but leaving them each with feelings of utter helplessness.

'Kaitlyn called.'

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TBC

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