2000-- The eldest sister is now 30 years old, the middle 27, the youngest 25

Still, the young Charmed Ones did not know of their destiny. That is, to marry the Other Side. One of them would have to. A detail to the law was that the marriage had to take place when the children on both sides had all passed twenty-five. All three sisters, so permit the best choice, would have to be twenty-five or older. Luckily, that wouldn't be until the next year. The two sons on the Other Side, Cole and Leo, were not the most happy about the rule, either, but if either side won in the marriage, the strongest side would rule over the other. That meant that there would most likely be a battle. It also meant that the strongest of the girls would be forced to marry, and the strongest of the two sons. The rule against using powers against the connected would keep them from fighting the Other Sides.

Piper paced the hallway like a caged lion. Thinking of her situation in such a manner, she smiled. She once had a pet. It was a tiger, though. He grew for five years and protected her as her guard. He died in an attack years ago, though.

Piper finally stopped pacing the hall. She looked up to see her sister, standing there. She looked as if she had been crying. Piper's face took on a look of sympathy as she walked up and took her sister in her arms.

"Phoebe, it'll be okay," she promised.

"No, it won't!" Phoebe wiggled away from her sister.

"Phoebe, we lost a leader. A friend. But we will be okay."

"No, Piper, we lost part of our family."

It was true. Everybody in the three Houses were like family to each other.

A month ago, one of the Houses lost a person. Richard was hard to give up, he had been a good partner and a great friend. But he was gone now. There was nothing they could do. But still, the Good outnumbered the Evil by two.

Patty came down the hall. Prue was following her closely, Penny just behind.

"Patty, we can't just go in--"

"I'm not, mother." Patty had a scroll with her. It was updated when something in the Houses changed. "Call the others."

Penny sighed and closed her eyes. A mental message was sent out that the girls could hear, as well as the other dwellers in the three Houses. They came quickly.

"What's the problem?" Faith asked. It was nearly three o'clock in the morning, and the attack from last week had worn her out. With no whitelighter to heal them, the Three Houses of Good had a lot of medicine in their cabinets. Once in a while, they got the privilege of another witches' whitelighter, but it didn't happen often. It was a big hassle to get a whitelighter to them, and they didn't do that unless it was necessary.

"The marriage is in a year." Penny looked at her girls lovingly, but soon looked back to the coffee table she had set the scroll on and rolled it out. It was a table. There was a picture of the three Houses of Good and Evil. In it were pictures of the dwellers.

"Yes, we all know," Brooke said solemnly.

The Charmed Ones were obviously confused. They looked from their mother to their Grams to their friends, finding no answer.

"We might as well rule down now," Patty said. She looked at the scroll. "In the three Houses on each side..." Patty trailed off. "Good. There's us. First House is Penny, the girls, and I. Second house is Brooke and Chris. In the Third is Nicholas, Faith, and..." Patty stopped for a moment, remembering Richard. "That's all. Nine of us." She looked at the other side of the scroll. "In the Evil Houses. First House is Decima, Bianca, and... Leo." Everyone nodded.

"Mom, does Leo really count?" Piper asked.

"Yes, whitelighter or no."

Around the time Piper turned two, a baby was stolen. His whitelighter parents couldn't find him anywhere. He had been taken into the First House of Evil and raised there. No one knew much more than that. He was extremely powerful, and had many demonic powers. Warlocks often brought powers to him to absorb, which made him stronger. No one knew the truth behind Leo, though. He seldom spoke of his real parents. He knew, though, that the demons weren't his real parents. Everyone knew.

"In the Second House is Anackalen." Anackalen was married, but his wife was killed in a demonic attack on their House. "Third are Demetrius... Fiona... and Cole." Fiona was once on the side of Good, living in the Second House. She was taken to the Evil side, the same as Leo. Though this change with Fiona was more sudden. It happened in a month's time.

"Yeah, we all know. Us and them. We know who's in each house, Phoebe said.

"Right, but did you know that..." Patty's finger ran to the bottom House on the Other Side. "Cole," She stopped at the two pictures of his human and demonic form. "is set to wed."

"What?" all three girls asked in unison. They turned to Nicholas, Faith, Brooke, and Penny, who had asked at the exact same time with as much confusion.

"Who? When?" Prue asked.

Patty sighed and closed her eyes. It was hard to explain, and harder to think about. She looked around the room for support. Chris said it instead. "One of you, next year."

"What?" the girls asked.

"Chris, you knew about Cole?" Brooke asked her husband.

"It was only Patty and I. We've only known for a few days..."

"We can't let this happen," Faith argued. "We only agreed because the girls were so young and Patty had just had Phoebe."

"Yes, but it was agreed, no less. But, if we can overcome them at the wedding, we keep all three girls and Cole," Patty said.

"Okay... What the hell are you guys talking about?"

Chris explained again. "Just after Phoebe was born, when you two were toddlers, it was around the same time that Cole turned... seven and Leo turned three. Yeah, they're four years apart, but the Houses knew that they had to get the Charmed Ones on their side somehow. They created a rule that said when each Charmed One was over the age twenty-five, one would be wed to the Other Side. In that sense, there would be a battle to determine who kept who. If we were to win, then we would keep both. If they won, they got both."

"What?"

"It's not for another year. They made the rule past a certain age, because Phoebe is the youngest. Once she turns twenty-five, any of the girls can be chosen. Cole apparently has been chosen for the marriage, and now they get to choose one of you girls."

"What?"

"We heard about the choosing a few days ago."

"Why Cole?" Faith asked.

"Because they were concerned that Leo may turn on them."

"Why?" Piper asked.

"Because he's still a whitelighter, born to whitelighters. Which means he's still part good. Somewhere. Even when raised by evil his entire life. They were afraid that if Leo was set to wed someone from the side of good, it could turn him."

"But he's been around evil his entire life."

"True, so don't get any ideas." Patty sighed again. "There's also a spell set at the wedding... One that uh, binds a wed couple. They want the strongest of you girls, which technically is any of you, so that you can't fight the Other Side. Family connects them, so you won't be able to fight the others. Cole, though, won't be able to fight us. It is a disadvantage that Cole is so powerful. He'll be a hard teammate for them to lose."

"Who agreed to this? Why?" Prue asked.

"Patty wasn't in a fighting state, and Penny was busy taking care of you two, and Phoebe was a baby. The four of us wouldn't have lasted long in the battle that would've been there. We had no choice but to agree. Otherwise, they would have overtaken us and raised you girls in evil."

"Like Leo," Piper said. She had seen Leo before in the past, and fought him many times. By the look of him, she wouldn't have known he was evil. Cole was the one who looked evil, but it wasn't Leo who had the same look.

"Right."