Phoebe stared at Piper, frozen in place. Piper looked at her, head cocked to the side. She looked older, and her eyes were different; cold and dead like a reptile.

"Piper?" Paige's voice was soft, nearly a squeak.

Piper smiled, and Phoebe felt her skin crawl.

"Yes and no, little sister." she flickered her hair out of her eyes in a manner that was defiantly not like Piper.

"I'd go in to it now, but we really don't have time."

One of the demons took a step closer, baring his teeth. Phoebe raised the knife in warning.

"Oh come on, we can't have that." Piper flicked her hand boredly, and the knife shattered in Phoebe's hand. She gasped as the knife blade cut into her skin, dropping the shards onto the floor where they lay useless.

The demons leapt forward. She had no chance, not even able to flinch as the mace thudded onto her skull...


A head ache was pounding in her head, centering on the bridge of her nose. Phoebe blinked, wincing as harsh glowing light burned into her eyes. Holding her head in her hands, she sat up. For a long time she just sat there, nursing the dreadful headache. She heard a soft moan from her left, and knew it was Paige.

Her little sister had a horrible bleeding cut above her right eye, the red blood staining her face like dark wine. She was barely conscious, eyelids fluttering.

Cradling Paige's head in her lap, Phoebe dabbed at the gash with the cloak, despair clutching at her stomach. She wondered what would happen to them now, whether they would become evil like Piper seemed have become, or simply be killed. Or perhaps worse, being sold on the slave market.

A small tear brushed at Phoebe's cheek, but she wiped it away angrily.

"Not very lively, are you?"

Phoebe flinched and twisted her head. The Source of all evil stood before her, peering like a curious child though the bars. Phoebe glared pure, black hatred at him, cheeks flaring red in fury.

Tanius didn't seem at all perturbed, a grin splitting his repulsive face. It hadn't improved in the last five years. Phoebe glanced around, at the bare cell with walls that pulsed with odd red light. It had changed a lot since Paige's last memory of it (AN- Phoebes thinking of Paige's memory. Just in case you were confused).

Piper entered the room, only glancing at Phoebe before turning to the Source.

"The 'chef'' sent me to say, and I quote, 'Dinners ready'." She said in an extremely sarcastic voice.

Tanius scowled at her tone, fingers twitching as though he longed to wrap them around her delicate throat. But he simply turned away, scurrying towards the door.

"I swear, he's like a spoilt little child sometimes." Piper sat down cross-legged on the floor, settling herself on the hard stone floor. She looked at Phoebe thoughtfully for a moment.

"Piper…" Phoebe was cut off as her sister suddenly spoke.

"You know, I'm surprised to see you here. I thought the spell that Minas did would have sent you away for eternity." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"I guess they don't make spells like they used to."

"What spell?" the mention of the Avatars name sparked Phoebe into full alert. Piper flapped her hand.

"Oh, some sort of time warp thing. Basically, sent you somewhere so Wart-Face could do his spell." Standing up with a stretch, Piper began to dust the dirt from her knees.

"Don't worry about vengeance against Minas." she grinned wickedly, a look that seemed to grate on Pipers soft face. "He'll get his very soon." She headed towards the door, then paused, half turning back. The movements almost exactly matched what Tanius done five years previously, turning to Paige to tell her that her sisters were dead. She pointed to a spot on the wall, and a rippling smoky circle appeared in the wall.

"What the hell. It's not like you've got cable in here." She slipped through the door, and Phoebe watched apprehensively as a picture began to form inside the smoke, of a room full of finery…


Piper slipped into the main hall as Tanius completed his summoning, clapping his hands together with a sound like thunder. Smoke billowed out of the thin air, swirling like a small tornado as a vaguely human form merged together in its core. Piper quickly took her place behind it. The smoke drizzled away to nothing, and Minas the Avatar stood before the Source. He bowed his head elegantly, but there was a fine sweat on his dark brow. Behind his back, Piper took something out of her pocket, dropping it softly to the floor. Tanius glared coldly at the man before him.

"Minas, I have received some rather unfortunate news." the words were precise and cordial, but were spat out like barbed insults. "Apparently you trespassed into this world not a day ago." Minas cocked his head slightly.

"I'm afraid that it impossible, Sir. You know as well as I that an Avatar cannot enter this here unless they are summoned. A Law of magic I believe you yourself created." Piper nudged the object on the floor with her foot, ready.

"Ahh, yes that is true..." Tanius was almost thoughtful "But there is also the fact that your kind can pool your magic together. Which of course would give you easily enough power to enter…"

Piper pushed the crystal into place. A light cage flickered to life, surrounding the avatar with bars of glowing light. The avatar stepped back, his eyes widening in fear. He twisted around quickly, and Piper gave him a jaunty wave. He visibly crumpled at the sight of her.

"You…." He looked at her, despair making him temporarily speechless.

"Surprised?" she poked the wall of the cage teasingly, and beads of sweat began to jut from his skin.

"Listen" he said quickly in a hushed voice "You don't have to do-"

"Oh but I do." She prodded the wall again, and his jaw clenched tight as another jolt of pain went through him.

"Finish him off already."

Piper scowled at Tanius, then flicked her hands grouchily. He exploded, smog curling lazily to the ceiling, drifting out a vent in the wall. The Source had already turned away, towards the table that held his evening meal. Plonking himself down, he grabbed a chicken leg and tore into it, yellow teeth ripping into the white flesh, ignoring Piper look of distaste. As she headed towards the door she winked at a slight, oval distortion in the air near the door. The faint rippling reflection of the cell vanished, and the circle faded into nothing.


Phoebe fought to keep her eyes open, exhaustion finally tearing at her bones. She had been running at full steam for almost 48 hours, and all her energy had faded. Paige was still drifting between darkness and reality, eyes flickering open and shut. Phoebe thought her head had simply nodded down for a moment. But when the door of the cell began to open, and her head jerked up, she was shocked to see twilight through the small metal bars of the window.

Piper ignored her, apparently deaf to Phoebes frantic attempt to get her attention, fastening chains to the walls. Phoebe fell silent, watching as her elder sister attached the cuffs to her wrists, wrapping her hands closed tight inst fists.

"What are you doing?" she asked finally, in a rather flat voice.

"Hush." A wisp of smoke slipped out of Pipers lips, dissolving into nothing. Phoebe watched with alarm as fog began to gush from Pipers tear ducts like smoky tears. Her eyes rolled upwards into her head, and her mouth gaped wide. Phoebe leapt at the bars as Piper began to spasm, body arching as steam gushed from every pore, even from beneath her fingernails. The smoke collected together, a par of glowing red eyes emerging from within the haze. Piper collapsed to the ground, and the smoke collected together to form a vaguely feminine form. A gash opened in the mist like a horrible gaping mouth. Phoebe backed away as it grinned at her, eyes dancing with evil. For a moment they stood there frozen; then the smoke began to pool to the ground, sinking like water into the earth. There was a slight silvery residue left behind, then that was gone too.

Phoebe stared breathlessly at the ground, then her eyes jerked up as Piper began to move; her body twitched, eyes flicking open, staring into middle distance. Then they focused into their normal intensity, and Piper turned to look at Phoebe, and it was as though she was staring at her for the first time.

"Oh God, Phoebe!" She moved forward, but she was bound tight to the wall. Tears began to flow. "I'm so sorry, I'm…" Phoebe stared at Piper, then glanced at the ground, then at Piper again. "Piper?"

Piper began to talk rapidly, the words almost blending together. Her story began to come out, everything that had happened. Of waking up for the first time, possessed by the spirit of Sylese, Tanius dead sister. Of all the horrible things she had witnessed, of seeing blood on her hands from something she couldn't stop. What it was like, living for five years thinking she was alone.

Phoebe could see the sun shining in the red sky, a smear of yellow in a pool of blood. Piper had at last fallen silent, gazing at the place where Sylese had slipped into the earth. Phoebe watched the sky, wondering what time it was. Paige had awoken half-way through the tale, and was now sitting silent, staring at the pulsing walls.

"So….what happens now?" asked Phoebe, turning away from the window to look at Piper. Her shrug was barely noticeable, but the tremble was.

"Tomorrow you will be killed. Paige returns to the slave pens, and I get to wait until Sylese becomes too confidant and Tanius decides he doesn't need her anymore, when I will face a long and probably very painful death." Her voice was flat; she was too tired for despair. The three of them were silent.

"When Minas came to you, what did he say?" Piper's eyes were dark.

"He showed me memories. Of what Paige went through." Paige's head jerked up, and she stared with obvious alarm at Phoebe. But she said nothing.

"He wanted me to change this world. Fix it, somehow." She shook her head. "But it's too late, isn't it?" she straightened as she saw something, a piece of the old Piper, glinting in her sisters eye.

"Well, too late now…." The glint turned into fire that burned in Pipers eyes.

"Phoebe, we have to send you back." Phoebe and Paige gaped at her wordlessly.

"But-"

"You don't belong in this place, Phoebe. If you go back, you could stop this from happening." Her eyes were glazed, far away as her brain went into overdrive. "Logically speaking, you should be taken back. I mean, the Universe has to be ordered……" she fell silent, but the thoughts continued to race. Phoebe waited, hardly daring to breathe.

It was late in the afternoon by the time they had gotten al the kinks out. Piper was still bound the wall, her hands pressed tight to her heart. A rough circle, drawn with a piece of rock, was dug into the floor. Phoebe stood in the centre, with Paige kneeling on the far side.

"Ready?" Phoebe nodded.

"Phoebe?" Paige's head was looking at the ground, her scars hidden by her long hair.

"If this all works out….If you go back and fix this…I don't want to know. I mean, I don't want me then to know what happened here." She smiled crookedly.

"Ignorance is bliss, right?"

Phoebe nodded, and Piper began to lead the chant.

"From the circle take the heart,

Place and time are far apart.

Put this piece into the past,

Keep her there, make it last."

(A/N- Hey, do I look like Shakespeare?)

Three times they repeated it, and three times the circle flared. As their voices died away, Phoebe thought for a second it hadn't work. Then, there was a wrenching feeling in her stomach, and she kneeled forward. But the ground was gone, and she was floating in a black abyss, falling into eternity….


Sorry this took so long. I'm supposed to be studying, so I'm doing this on the sly. And I just realised that doesn't take an exclemation mark next to a question mark, so I apologise for any grammatical confusion I may have caused.

And I'll put the next chapter up as soon as possible.