Piper rubbed her full belly, "I really had fun tonight, Maria."

"Thank you for taking us. I'm glad we got to do the 'family thing.'"

"Maria," Michael rested a hand on Maria's forearm. "Is it cool if we stop at the Crashdown right quick? I've got to talk to Max about something."

"What?"

"Nothing important. He was just borrowing some art supplies and I'd rather get them back tonight."

"Sure. Is it okay with you guys?" She looked in the rearview mirror at her stuffed family.

"Yeah. We can wait."

"Thanks." Michael smiled and hopped out of the shining black Suburban that Maria had bought earlier that year with some trust fund money.

It was about eight o'clock but the Crashdown seemed deserted. No one was there but Michael summed it up to Spring Break and everyone leaving on vacation. Noting that even José had left, he went into the back.

* * * * *

Phoebe held her bulging stomach and sighed heavily. "I'm gonna sit outside until he gets back. It's so hot in here."

"I'll sit with you," Piper offered. She opened her door and stepped down to the street.

Piper, Leo, Phoebe, Cole, Paige, Taja, and Maria all sat down at the umbrella-covered tables outside the Crashdown, looking towards the gorgeous desert twilight.

"It's so beautiful here." Paige breathed, in awe of the variety of purples, reds, and oranges in the sunset.

"I used to hate it," Maria said, remembering a faraway conversation with Michael. "Now, I don't think I would be able to live anywhere else. The desert has just become too close to me."

Taja looked into the coming night and related completely. "I know how you feel. I thought Colorado was the most beautiful place on Earth until I came here. It just becomes a part of you."

All of a sudden, a man faded into view. He wore a complete suit of black, matching his black hair and eyes so black there was no white visible. "You witched thought you could escape us! Ha! Your mistake will be your death!"

"Oh please." Phoebe rolled her eyes and stood up in a fighting stance.

"What the hell is going on?" Taja asked, fear and confusion thinning her voice.

Maria nudged Taja in the direction of the door. "Taja, let's just go inside and get Michael and Max," she whispered.

"Nobody is going anywhere!" the man raged.

"Think again!" Piper froze the demon but he shook it off after a few seconds.

A sinister laugh rose from the man's throat. "I'm too strong for your feeble attempts." He pulled a long knife from the folds of his pants and stabbed Piper in the stomach.

"Leo!" Piper screamed as she fell to the ground, clutching her wound in agony. Blood spilled from between her fingers to the cold concrete below her.

"Piper, no!" Leo rushed to his fallen wife, tears in his eyes. Kneeling beside her, he brushed her hair from her eyes.

Maria began to scream and Taja, dazed, scared, and frightened, released a bolt of energy at the demon, who instantly disintegrated.

Michael ran out of the building, followed by the rest of the group. They looked on in terror as Taja killed the stranger.

"What is going on?" Max yelled, looking around desperately.

"We need to get Piper inside." Phoebe explained as Leo lifted Piper into his arms as gently as possible. "She's been stabbed really badly and she's loosing a lot of blood."

"Follow me," Liz urged.

Leo carried Piper to the back room and laid her out on the couch. Max rushed to her side, but Leo shoved him back.

"I can help her," Max insisted.

"Not as well as I can." Leo placed his hand on Piper's stomach, directly over her wound. He rested his other hand on her cheek as she looked at his face with pain etched in her eyes. Blue light caressed his hand where he touched her body. It eased its way under her skin and healed her with a warm glow.

"I love you, Leo" she said when it was over.

Leo gathered her in his arms and brought her against his chest, burying his face in her hair. "I was so scared. I thought I might have lost you again."

* * * * *

Max, Isabel, Kyle, Alex, and Liz looked on in shock. What the hell was this guy doing with Max's power and why did Taja kill that man outside? When the moment passed, Max spoke. "What the hell is going on?"

"I'd like to know what's up with you guys. Taja, where did you get that power?" Cole walked up on Taja, backing her up on the wall.

Max pushed Cole back with a shove. "No, you first! What are you all really doing here?"

Michael put a hand on Max's shoulder. "Calm down, Max."

"Calm down!?" Max whirled on Michael. "He has powers! He could be anybody! We don't know who's side they're on!"

"Max, shut up!" Maria moved to stand nose to nose with Max. "This is my family. They're on my side and it's a long story."

Paige looked up. "Was this the reason you wanted to tell Max earlier? Is Taja the secret you are keeping?"

Maria looked trapped. "Kinda. There's actually a lot more."

"Maria, stop!" Liz started to freak out.

"Yeah. You can't just tell our lives!"

"Then I'll tell them." Michael looked to Isabel, then Max in turn. "It's okay guys, really. Just listen."

"Michael, if you're wrong…" Max trailed off.

"I'm not! Do you think I would endanger us like that, or Maria?" Michael pleaded.

"Okay, fine." Max grumbled.

"We're not going to hurt you." Leo reassured.

"Isabel, Max, Taja, and I are aliens."

Phoebe broke the silence with a snort. "Aliens? Uh-huh!"

"Hey, you guys are witches! Why can't we be aliens?" Michael asked, indignantly.

"Witches?" Liz repeated numbly, wringing her hands.

"That's the next story." Maria hugged her best friend close to her body.

"The Royal Four." Leo just barely whispered, but Michael heard.

"How did you…?"

Leo smiled, understanding the situation at last. "We've been in contact with your guardian."

"Kytanna?" Isabel revealed.

"Yes, hold on, I'll go get her." He disappeared with a shimmer of the same blue light then returned with the female they knew for so long as Tess.

"Hello, children." She smiled warmly.

"Cam you please explain what is happening here, Kytanna?"

Piper turned Leo to face her, "Leo, you knew about all of this?"

"I had no idea that they were the Royal Four."

""What's this 'royal four' deal and who the hell are you?" Cole pointed at Kytanna rudely.

"I am their guide. When the children were first sent to Earth, Jaiden, their protector, and I went to the Powers That Be and asked for them to keep an eye on our charges until they were ready to know about their destiny."

"I had heard about the visitors, but I was never directly involved with any of it so I didn't know it was them." Leo looked at Piper apologetically.

Kytanna continued. "These children are the blood heirs to the aligned kingdoms of Chevreuse and Rouchelle. Rath and Ava ruled the principal moon, Rouchelle, while Zan and Vilandra ruled Chevreuse, Rouchelle's mother planet. When their alliance was attacked by Shantiel, a lesser moon, the King and Queen sent their children to Earth 'til the time that they could be reborn and reunited in their next life. Their homes are at peace now and when they die a natural death, their souls will travel to their home planet and remanifest themselves, again."

"What about their powers?" Piper asked.

"When they were given human bodies, they were the human bodies of the future, more evolved and more in control of their brain. Because their souls are still alien, they each have an individual power. Each set of twins, Isabel and Max, and Michael and Taja, share powers. Michael was a general, the protector, second-in-command, so he emits high-powered bolts of energy. Taja can do this mildly, as you witnessed today. Taja was a scribe so she can project images from the mind onto a smooth surface. Michael gets mild visions, but he paints to express them."

Phoebe cut in. "Hey, I get visions, too. Usually when I touch something."

"Yeah, that's how it works for me." Michael agreed.

"Isabel can dreamwalk into other people's dreams, such as Max can be dreamwalked while conscious and functioning. Max is a healer, but Isabel can restore beauty. I am the spirit guide of the Royal Four and will lead their souls home at the end of their journey. Jaiden is the protector of the Royal Four. He has forfeit his life in order to watch them and keep their presence undetected." Kytanna finished.

"Is there any significance in the fact that there are two sets of twins?" Paige wondered.

"Everyone on their planets bear twins. It is the basis of the Bond."

"The bond? What's that?" Piper asked.

"When two Bien-aimé Bond, they bind their souls into one, making them complete forever. They are able to communicate telepathically with each other and will share a bond with their unborn children, when it occurs."

"What are Bien-aimé? Is that what they are?" Phoebe guessed.

"What?" Max had never heard this before.

"Bien-aimé aren't like humans at all. They are able to take on, or adopt, faces, but they have no fixed physical appearance of their own. They are shape-changers, becoming anything and everything. Bien-aimé are auras of their own souls. Taja can see auras because she was once a Scribe, a very powerful Scribe. As Bien-aimé adopt new faces at a whim, they are detectable by their individual auras."

"What about Leo?" Max challenged. "What the hell is he? Why can he heal, too, and how did he know something about us?"

"I am a Whitelighter, Max, similar to your spirit guide, only Whitelighters guard witches. Each Whitelighter is given a certain amount of witches to visit and direct as they learn form the Powers That Be. I am in charge of the Charmed Ones. The Charmed Ones are three sisters prophesized to be the strongest witches against evil. Piper, Phoebe, and Prudence Halliwell were these three sisters. Prue, the eldest, died a year ago to save Piper. She was replaced as a Charmed One by Paige, their half-sister on their mother's side."

"The Charmed Ones are most powerful when they are together, for they only have a few natural powers each. Piper freezes time or makes things combust. Phoebe is given visions and levitation. Paige can orb objects to her or even herself when threatened. Prue was telekinetic and could astrally project her spirit to other places. Their spells, when spake times three, destroy all evil." Kytanna informed them.

"Is that what that was?" Taja asked, thinking of the strange man she blew up just minutes earlier. "Something evil? It didn't have an aura at all."

"Evil had its soul." Leo said ominously.