Leo and Paige heard a dull thud and turned around to see Piper lying on the floor. They were by her side in an instant, lifting her onto the couch. Ma'at seemed to distracted to even notice something was happening. After a few minutes Piper woke up.
"What happened? Ouch, I think I hurt my head…" Leo quickly healed her. "Wait! Phoebe, she's really….? Then what are we gonna do? I have to save my sister…and my son. She will be coming after him, right?"
Leo nodded. "I'm sure Ra hasn't changed his mind about Wyatt in such a short time." Piper sighed. "So now, I have to face my Goddess of a sister, to turn her back before she kills my son…any ideas?"
"I've got one," Paige said and sat down on the couch next to Piper. "What if we become Goddesses as well? Think about it. We can put on the pendants, like Phoebe did, and fight her off with the powers of Bastet and Tefnut. All we would have to do is get off her pendant, and she's be Phoebe again."
"That could work. As long as she attacks before Bastet and Tefnut take over our bodies, but if we wait until she gets here we might never get a chance to put them on…It's worth a try." Piper looked at Leo.
"If we…if I…you take them somewhere safe, okay? Even if it's up there. I don't want either of them getting hurt, especially by one of us three!" Leo nodded, and kissed Piper.
Piper and Paige stood up. "Now let's give this a try," Paige said, handing Piper the cat head pendant of Bastet. Both put on the pendants, and were immediately transformed: Piper into Bastet, and Paige into Tefnut.
"Piper? Paige?" "Yeah, we're still here Leo. Just Bastet not shutting up inside my head." Paige agreed with Piper. "Now all we have to do is wait for Hathor to arrive."
Paige hadn't even spoken when Ma'at's eyes began to emit blue light. "I'm afraid it is too late…The coin of two sides has been turned, the Dark Goddess approaches."
And indeed, just as the Goddess of Truth finished speaking, a big spiral of fire appeared out of thin air and materialized into Phoebe. However, she wasn't clad like Hathor anymore. She was wearing a beautiful full-body corset in gold and embedded with diamonds, a short skirt in the same design and golden sandals. She had a beautiful, golden headband with a lion head on it. Her Egyptian like make-up showed her to be an Ancient Egyptian Goddess.
"Wait aminute, she's not Hathor anymore…." Startled Paige took a step back, and suddenly the voice of Tefnut in her head was silent, and Paige could feel fear that wasn't her own.
You're right! She….she's Sakhmet now!" Piper, experiencing the same as Paige, didn't know where she got the knowledge but assumed it was the now silent Bastet. She focused, and looked at Sakhmet.
"You have betrayed my Lord, and now you will die," Sakhmet hissed, her voice faintly sounding like a roaring lion. Suddenly, she hurled a fireball at Leo, who crashed against the wall and fell unconscious.
Quickly, Paige fired an energy ball in an attempt to catch the Goddess of Destruction off guard. Sakhmet however deflected the energy ball and hit Paige with a dense black fog.
Paige was hurled back against the wall, her pendant dropping on the floor. Trying to get up, she noticed Sakhmet readying to strike her with the fog again. But Piper acted immediately and threw a fireball at Sakhmet.
The Dark Goddess didn't even seem fazed, and threw a fireball back at Piper. Piper also crashed against the wall, managing to maintain her pendant but not her consciousness . Sakhmet now had her attention on the eldest Charmed One, readying herself to strike with another fireball when Paige finally stood upright and called for Sakhmet's pendant.
Her power didn't work on the pendant, and she was hit by another full blast of the black fog. Seeing Wyatt, she forgot everything else and walked to the toddler. Summoning the black fog once again into her hand, making it even more dense, she looked at him.
Piper suddenly woke up and saw Paige lying across the room with a black bulges on her body, convulsing, suffering from the Plague if the descriptions given in Piper's old history books were anything close to the truth.
Sakhmet raised her hand with the fog in it, which now was so dense it seemed like a black hole which absorbed light but didn't reflect it. "PHOEBE!" Sakhmet looked at her when Piper screamed, with a strange look in her eyes, but immediately shifted her gaze back to Wyatt.
The first thing she saw where the were the orbs lighting up the boy's eyes and an image of Paige dying from the Plague flashed before hers. A voice grew louder in Sakhmet's head, becoming a deafening scream and suddenly… it was over.
The fog dissipated into thin air, and two shapeless forms left her body. "O no, Paige!" Phoebe rushed to her sister's side and held out her hands. Immediately, the black fog left Paige's body, and the bulges disappeared. The fog flew into Phoebe's hand and she bent down to help Paige up.
"Are you okay, honey? I'm so sorry! I tried to stop, but Sakhmet and Hathor were both so strong. If it hadn't been for Wyatt…I don't know what he did, but thanks to him I could finally kick those two out of my head."
"Yeah, well, I'm just glad we're all okay." But Phoebe's mood seemed to darken even more. "We're not okay yet, Paige. We've still got Ra to deal with. And Bastet and Tefnut must be getting stronger in you guys by now, even with the beating Sakhmet gave you."
"Ma'at, why is Ra after my son?" Piper looked at the Goddess of Truth, who now had three pairs of eyes looking at her. Her own eyes, still emitting blue light, seemed to get even brighter.
"A vision came to our Father months ago, of a future far ahead. He saw that the next hosts for Bastet, Hathor and Tefnut were the three of you, but that something terrible would happen when their time came to change hosts. This boy, by that time a man, would seek a way to free you again and in the process would destroy all of us. Like he destroyed Sakhmet and Hathor just now."
"Why didn't he choose to attack sooner?" "An Elder stopped him then, saying it would get the cosmos out of balance. He said the three of you would seek revenge, hunting down both Evil and Good for information, and that he was working on a plan of his own to rid the world of the threat of Wyatt Halliwel."
Piper growled. "Gideon! Sonofabitch!" Ma'at nodded, acknowledging that it had been the rogue Elder. "After his destruction, Father decided to much time had been wasted already and so my sisters attacked. I spoke against the destruction of one so pure still, and my Father imprisoned me. That's when I decided you needed to be warned."
"And now I see that in his efforts, my Father has brought the future he dreaded even closer. Our time is now, the Egyptian Age is finished. You three we're all chosen to wear those pendants because you're the only ones alive worthy of their power, and their power you deserve to keep. Thank you, for granting the last of the houses of Egypt peace at last."
Saying that, Ma'at's hole body suddenly started to glow brightly blue and the Feather of Truth emitted golden light. Suddenly, the Goddess of Truth exploded and a shockwave of golden light hit Piper and Tefnut's pendant. Three shapeless forms flew right through the ceiling and Piper looked at Phoebe.
"Bastet's gone!" Phoebe answered. "Yeah, so are Hathor and Sakhmet. And I'm guessing Tefnut and Ma'at are too." Picking up the emerald green pendant, Paige asked Phoebe the question she was dreading. "What was that with the entire Hathor/Sakhmet-thing anyway?"
"I don't know. From what I understand Sakhmet was both the vengeful part of Hathor, and Hathor's evil mirror image. It was kind of complicated, but basically they're one and the same person."
While Paige put on her pendant and became an Egyptian Goddess again, Phoebe saw and picked up Ma'at's sapphire blue pendant lying on the floor. "And now for Ra…," Phoebe said.
T.B.C