Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: We who are about to write salute you.

Kidnapped

Cyrus was sitting at a table shuffling through some old papers, when Arianna stormed into the room. She used her telekinetics to close the door behind her, but in her angry, slammed it causing the layer of dust in the room to stir.

"They lost the amulet," she shouted furiously and approached the table at which he sat. She glared down at Cyrus expecting a response, or a course of action, but received neither. Instead, he calmly straightened and stacked the parchment he had been reading, then folded his hands together across the paper and looked up.

This infuriated Arianna. How could he act like that at a moment like this, she thought to herself. The amulet had been stolen, snatched out of the hands of witches. It would take at least another three months to relocate it again and by then it may be too late.

"Maybe you didn't hear me," she said, narrowing her eyes and leaning forward until she was inches from his face. "Those dim-witted witches had the amulet stolen from them. We lost it yet again, taken from our..."

Cyrus cut her off. "I am aware of what you have said," he said in a cool manner. Arianna stood up, still frowning at him.

"And what are you going to do about it?" she asked crossly, folding her arms.

Cyrus stood up, smoothing the wrinkles from his robe. He walked around to the front of the table where Arianna was looking at him expectantly, her face flushed with anger.

"Who was it that stole the amulet?" he asked.

"A demon."

Cyrus nodded his head and folded his hands together. "What type of demon was it?"

"An evil one," she replied sarcastically.

Cyrus didn't respond, instead he began to pace the room with his head bowed in thought and seem to ignore all else that was happening around him.

Arianna watched him through narrow eyes and began to drum her fingers on her arm impatiently waiting for him to say something. She wouldn't wait forever though, she didn't like to wait. Especially when it involved something as important as this. Letting out a sigh of irritation, she began to tap her foot on the stone. Cyrus only paused briefly to glace at her before resuming his pacing. Arianna rolled her eyes at him. She was getting very aggravated and impatient now and her drumming of the fingers and tapping of the foot was reaching an all time high, the sound echoed dully through the chamber.

"Will you desist," Cyrus said curtly as he stopped his pacing. Arianna only looked at him before ending.

"Did you think of something?" she asked him as she leaned back against the table's edge.

"As a matter of fact I did," he answered.

Arianna looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to explain his seamless plan on how to retrieve the amulet, but he did not continue. "And..."

Cyrus smiled and put his hand in opposite sleeves before resuming his pacing again. "I believe it would be easier to relocate the amulet if we find the demon who stole it."

"I agree," said Arianna. "Except one little detail. We don't know who or what stole it."

"We don't," Cyrus turned quickly to face Arianna, "but the Charmed Ones do." He paused only to shake his hands out of the sleeves to his robes. "Which is where you come in."

"What do you mean?" asked Arianna crossing her arms. Cyrus merely continued to look at her a small smile tugging at his lips. Arianna looked at him curiously before it finally dawned on her.

"What!" she said loudly, swiftly coming to her feet. "You want me to go back there." Cyrus nodded. She just stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief. "No. No way am I going back to those...those... witches." She spat the last words out with disgust. "Send someone else, there is no way in hell that I'm going there." And with that said she turned up her head like a stubborn three-year old.

"You are most knowledgeable about this matter," Cyrus said simply. "I will not send another."

Arianna looked at him smugly. "Then I guess we're screwed." She turned her back to him and began to walk out of the room with a flowing stride. Cyrus, however, grew tense and angry, his eyes narrowed as he looked at her retreating back.

"You will go back and find out who stole the amulet," he said with suppressed anger in his voice. Arianna stopped in mid-stride and turned smiling and shaking her head.

"Maybe you don't get it," she told him. "I am not going back there." She smiled at him mockingly.

Cyrus whole attitude suddenly changed as he drew himself up to his full height, seeming very large and powerful. His face was stern and proud, yet frightening all at the same time. His entire stance reflected the power and authority that he held so close to him.

Arianna took a step back in fright and awe seeing him take this change, though it was against her normal defiant behavior to back down like this. After all, it did imply weakness and there was nothing more that Arianna hated than weakness.

"No," he said, though it was more like an command. "You will go."

Arianna opened her mouth to say something, but for once in her life she was at lost for words. Cyrus continued.

"I am the leader here and you will respect my authority," he said, not releasing his gaze from her. "I cannot have people like you dismissing my orders and taking their own course of action." His voice was beginning to rise in volume at this point. "Even though you are powerful and of high status, it does not give you the right of openly denying a direct order, especially if it comes from the highest power, in this case me." He took a deep breath before going on. "Now, I ordered you to go back to the Charmed Ones to retrieve the needed information, therefore you are to do so immediately without any questions or arguments. If you are incapable of doing this, then perhaps you should return to Training in order to learn respect and obedience, because without them, we cannot function successfully."

When Cyrus finally finished he returned to his normal state and went to sit down in his chair behind the table. Arianna stood there in astonishment, her eyes were wide and her mouth slightly opened, but no words came out. Cyrus smiled inwardly to himself, happy that his speech had such an impact that it did; few thing ever did fazed her. He knew that the threat of returning to Training and thus, sinking to the lowest status, would be a personal insult to her as she liked the rank, and freedom that came with it, she held now.

Shaking her head to get rid of the shock, she turned toward Cyrus with reluctance.

"Fine I'll go back." She turned again to leave, but just before she reached the door she stopped. "But I'll bring them back here so you can talk to them," she said in her normal, abrupt manner.

Cyrus leaned his head back and folded his fingers across his chest, smiling to himself. Perhaps, he will never be able to fully get through to her.

Piper, Paige and Phoebe were up in the attic still trying to shake the after-effects from the last attack; it had come unexpected and so soon after the other demon attack. And there was that strange spell the last demon had put on them; their bodies still were still tingling from the magic.

Piper sat in a chair with her head in her hands while her other two sisters searched through the book. So far, the day hasn't been very successful. Three demons, two of whom were vanquished, the other got away; one amulet that they found and then was stolen from them. They couldn't find any of the demons in the Book of Shadows and Cole had yet to return from the Underworld with information; Leo hadn't returned either. "It is just me or is this really strange," said Paige, voicing the confusion in Piper's own mind. "I mean there's those two unidentified demons and that weird necklace thing that all seem to be connected."

Phoebe closed the cover of the Book after looking through it for the tenth time. "There is absolutely nothing in here about any of that stuff." She went over and sat in the chair next to Piper. "I don't know what else to do." The two older and more experienced sisters sat quietly while Paige took over Phoebe's place at the book, determined to find what they were looking for.

"We could try scrying for them?" she suggested as she began to flip through the worn pages filled with spells, potions, demons and other magical beings that have been passed down through generations.

Piper shook her head. "We don't have anything to scry with,"

"What about a Summoning spell?"

"We don't know enough about them to summon them," said Phoebe.

"We don't know anything about them." Piper pointed out.

Paige shook her head, not disheartened by her sisters, and continued to flip through the book. "There has to be something..."

"Paige there is nothing about any of them." Phoebe said slightly angered and annoyed. She rose to her feet and walked to where the book was, closing it.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Paige asked in the same annoyed tone as Phoebe. "Just let them go?" She rested her hands on her hips in a stubborn manner.

"Yeah," said Piper now getting up from her chair to join her sisters. "Until we know more about them that's exactly what we are going to do."

Paige threw up her hands and sighed loudly, finally giving in to her sisters and went to sit down in the chair that Piper had occupied.

"Leo!" called Piper looking up to the ceiling. Since she and her sister witches couldn't find anything, she wanted to know if her husband/whitelighter did. Within seconds, a swirl of blue and white lights appeared and Leo was standing in front of them.

"Did you find anything yet?" he asked.

"No, but we were going to ask you the same thing," Piper replied as she went over to give her husband a small kiss on the cheek. Leo smiled and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to his side. He kissed the top of her head, then looked at Phoebe and Paige.

"The Elders don't know anything about the amulet or the demon."

Piper let out a small laugh. "What else is new," she muttered under her breath. Leo looked at her,

"We got another problem," Phoebe said crossing her arms with a quick glance to her sisters. "The amulet was stolen,"

"What?" Leo pulled his arm away from Piper. "Who stole it?"

"The same type of demon that we found it on."

"And we have another problem too," said Paige. "We met another demon who was looking for the amulet. She wasn't in the book either,"

"What did she look like?" asked Leo.

Piper began to tell him. "Blonde hair, dressed in black..."

"Looks just like her," said Paige pointing behind Piper and Leo and going slightly pale. Beside her, Phoebe took a small step back her eyes wide. A somewhat nervous Piper slowly turned around and found herself face to face with the same demon that had come in after the amulet was stolen.

The women stood there in a powering manner with the hood of her black robe thrown back to show her dark features. Her eyes were narrow as she looked over the motionless people with loathing written all over her face. A smile tugged at her lips as she watched the helpless witches and their whitelighter, but was quickly replaced with a frown.

"Piper, why can't we move?" asked Leo out of the corner of his mouth.

"It's one of her little tricks," replied Piper through gritted teeth.

The women smiled slyly and flicked a hand towards the two and their jaws snapped together. Now they could only move their eyes which were wide with fright.

"Hey!" called out Phoebe to the strange demon. "If you think that..." But she wasn't able to finish as the women flicked her hand again in Phoebe's and Paige's direction to close their mouths.

The women began to weave through the still and silent bodies and reached inside her robe. Without a word, she took out three necklaces shaped as a diamond with a slash through it and place them around each neck of the witches. After finishing that, she stepped back in front of them and pulled out a similar necklace out of her robes and placed it around her own neck. She ran a finger along the diagonal and it began to glow light sliver; the diagonals of the witches necklaces began to glow also. The women smiled and glancing up at the faces of the Charmed Ones, materialized out of the room. Instantaneously, Phoebe, Piper, and Paige materialized out of the room right after her.

As soon as they left, Leo was able to move again and looked around the room trying to comprehend what had just happened. Taking a deep breath to try and calm himself, he closed his eyes and concentrated trying to sense where the girls might have gone to, but couldn't locate them anywhere. Now in panic, he opened his eyes again and without a second thought, orbed Up There to go and talk to the Elders, hoping against all hope that the girls would be all right.