"Phoebe!" cried out Piper. "Leo, can you heal her?"
Leo was already kneeling beside Phoebe's chair, his hands held up to her face. But instead of the familiar healing glow, nothing happened. "I don't think she's injured, so there isn't anything I can heal. It's like she fainted, but she's not waking up."
"Smelling salts!" said Paige, and smelling salts orbed into her hand.
"Where did those come from?" Piper asked, surprised.
"No idea," said Paige, "but I figured it was worth a shot." She crushed the salts and held them under Phoebe's nose as Leo continued focusing his healing power on her, but Phoebe didn't react at all.
"What do we do? What -- what do we do?" Piper asked urgently.
Leo finally stood up. "I don't know if there's anything we can do, Piper. I think we have to just wait and see." Piper looked stricken. "She'll wake up. I'm sure she'll wake up," Leo told her.
"Is she okay?" Paige asked. "I mean, was she okay before this?"
With a small sigh, Leo answered, "She's feeling a lot of stress right now, because she thinks she's not living up to her potential as a witch. And she feels like she's failing you, and falling behind."
Piper shook her head. "Oh, Phoebe..." she said softly.
* * *
Phoebe was seeing visions, but they were unlike any premonition she had ever had. Flashes of scenes tumbled before her, one after another, like a whirling kaleidoscope of images.
Demons, unhidden, in the streets of San Francisco.
Mortals dying, the pain visibile on their faces.
Demons blowing up houses.
Demons blowing up people.
People screaming.
Phoebe was overwhelmed, unable to catch her breath. Each vision appeared so quickly, and she barely had time to register it before it disappeared and was replaced by the next one.
A demon sending a schoolbus over a cliff.
A demon vaporizing everyone at a busy intersection.
Demons inciting riots.
Demons flaming out, leaving scenes of complete destruction in their wake.
As Phoebe's sense of horror grew, she tried to grip something -- anything -- tightly with her hands, to have something to hold onto. But her body seemed out of reach -- she seemed to have no corporeal form in this dizzying montage of premonitions.
Demons meeting in a room like Cole's penthouse.
Demons flaming into the Underworld.
Demons entering the chamber where the coronations of Sources occurred.
A dark sense of foreboding filled her mind, as the whirlwind of images suddenly stopped, and this one image continued.
More and more demons appeared in the chamber, and each demon fell to its knees upon entering. They surrounded a dais in the middle of the chamber, on which there was a throne. Phoebe could see the back of the throne, but the throne itself was high enough to block her view of whomever was seated upon it.
One demon separated himself from the crowd by standing up and approaching the throne. "Your orders have been carried out. They are here." He gestured, and a cage appeared, very like the one in which Phoebe had been trapped with her sisters just before they vanquished the Seer and her legions in that very chamber.
The cage spun around, and Phoebe's mind reeled when she saw who was inside it: Piper and Paige.
Her point of view began to shift, and she was seeing the scene from different angles, as if she were walking along the perimeter of the chamber. She kept her focus on her sisters, until a voice startled her. A woman's voice, cold and chilling, with horrific undertones as she said a single word: "Good."
Phoebe's focus turned at the sound of that voice, and she saw the figure seated upon the throne. "Oh no," she whispered, as her body shuddered uncontrollably.
* * *
"Leo, look at her! She's convulsing! Why won't she wake up? Why can't you wake her up?" The pain in Piper's voice cut Leo to the quick.
"I'm sorry," he began, when Paige cut him off.
"Look!" she cried out, pointing at Phoebe, whose eyes had flown open. "Phoebe? Sweetie, are you okay? Can you hear me?" Paige said, already at her side.
"No, no, no, no, no...It can't be, it can't be real, she can't be real, it isn't possible," Phoebe moaned softly, unaware of her sister.
"Pheebs? Come on, honey, it's okay, you're awake now," Piper said, reaching out to squeeze Phoebe's arm.
"No!" Phoebe jerked her arm away violently, then blinked as she realized her surroundings.
"Phoebe?" asked Piper in a hurt voice.
"Piper...I thought you were --" Phoebe let out a long shuddering breath, glancing around the attic. "I'm in the attic. What just happened?"
"We vanquished Benecaedus -- that was a hell of a spell, by the way -- and then you fainted or something. You've been out cold for almost twenty minutes," Paige informed her.
"I -- I fainted? Do people dream when they faint?" asked Phoebe.
Leo looked puzzled. "I don't know," he admitted. "What did you dream?"
"Nothing," said Phoebe sharply. "Nothing at all."
"Phoebe, when you first woke up, you said 'She can't be real.' Who is 'she'?" Piper asked.
"Nobody. I told you, it was nothing," Phoebe insisted.
Paige gave her a look. "Phoebe, when we were vanquishing Benecaedus, he said 'She will outlast you.' We have no idea who he meant. The only powerful female demons we've come across were the Seer and the Crone, and we've vanquished both of them. If you had a dream -- or, say, a premonition -- with a woman you thought couldn't be real, you need to tell us who it was. Phoebe, what did you see?"
"I saw...utter devastation. Scene after scene of demonic destruction," Phoebe said slowly. "And then I was in the Source's chamber. And you two were in a magic cage again. And then I saw the throne..." Phoebe's voice trailed off.
"Who was it? Who are we up against, Phoebe?" Piper asked.
In a very small voice, Phoebe answered.
"It was me."