"Where's my father?" Piper said.
Cole snapped his fingers, and a pair of demons emerged from the bedroom, dragging Victor's unconscious body. One held an athame to his throat. "Give me the Dragon Blade," Cole said again to Piper.
"I don't have it," she said.
"Somehow, I thought you'd say that," Cole said, glancing at his watch. "Doesn't matter, I suppose." He nodded to the demons, and the one with the athame removed it from Victor's throat, then thrust it into his side.
"No!" Piper cried. Cole grinned at her and shimmered out. The two demons followed, letting Victor's body fall to the floor. Piper jumped to his side, putting her hand over his wound, trying to stop the flow of blood.
"I can't orb!" Paige said.
"Magic's gone down," Piper said. "And it won't come back until the baby is born."
Cole shimmered into the Halliwell manor, flanked by the two demons. "You are cutting it close, my liege," the Seer said, bowing respectfully at his appearance. "As I have seen, magic will fail starting at midnight on the eve of the Wiccan Sabbat, and that time is...now."
"I told you, timing had to be perfect," Cole said. "Magic has ceased to function. The witches can't orb back here now. Where is their Whitelighter?"
"He is not within these walls," the Seer said. "And wherever he is, he will be as powerless as the rest until the child is born." She stretched her arm out, directing Cole's attention to the living room. The dining room table had been moved to the center of the room, and Phoebe lay upon it, gasping for breath as she fought the birth of her baby. The two demons moved to stand on either side of table, ignoring the piteous cries of the woman upon it. "She continues to fight, but it will not be long now," the Seer said. She paused, then added, "The baby is very large, my liege. I may have to remove it through her belly."
"Only if you have to," Cole said coolly. "I'd prefer her to remain alive. She is my Queen, after all. But the child's life is more important. Rip it out of her if you need to."
"Cole..." Phoebe cried weakly, reaching out for him. He did not move to take her hand, watching impassively, his arms crossed across his chest. Her face contorted in pain as another contraction began. "Cole...please...help me," she begged. "Piper! Paige!"
"Your sisters can't hear you," he said. "They're on the other side of San Francisco trying to stop your father from bleeding to death. But without magic they'll fail, and they'll never get here in time to save you. Consider your father's life just the first of many sacrifices in the name of our son."
The Seer knelt to check the baby's progress again. "Ah, he is coming now," she said. "Push, my Queen. You are almost there."
Moments later, Phoebe screamed, then the cries of a newborn filled the air as the Seer rose with the infant in her arms. She sliced the umbilical cord with the athame, and Phoebe gasped in sudden shock as her connection to the Source was finally completely severed. "My baby," she moaned. "Give me my baby..."
The Seer wiped the baby clean, then wrapped him in a blanket and handed him to Cole. "Your son, my liege," she said.
"Cole, please, let me see my baby," Phoebe said, struggling to sit up. She held out her arms to him.
Cole turned toward her. "You may see him, but you will not touch him," he said. "I will not have you corrupting him. You have served your purpose here, and now the only use I have for you is to produce another child. Seer, return her to the Underworld."
"As soon as I am able, I will obey," the Seer said, bowing her head. "Magic's return begins with your son's birth, but it is not immediate, and the ability to transport oneself will the one of the last powers to return."
"That's good for us then," Piper said from the stairway landing. She blew up the demons that flanked the table with a quick flash of her hands. "Good thing my powers are working now."
"Baby!" Paige called from beside her. The infant disappeared in a cloud of orbs and reappeared in Paige's arms. He wailed in dismay, kicking weakly. "Awww, look at the cute wittle Source,' Paige said, tickling him under the chin. "Who's the cute Source of all Evil? Who's the cute Source of All Evil?"
Cole glared at the sisters. "How did you get here? It's impossible!"
Piper started to move down the stairs, followed by Paige. "We never left," she said. "Whitelighters can glamour themselves, you know. That wasn't me and Paige who went to meet you. That was Leo and another Whitelighter, and Leo, as you know, is a trained medic even without his powers, so my father is going to be just fine." She tried to look beyond Cole at the table on which Phoebe lay. "Phoebe?" Her sister didn't answer.
"You can't win this, Piper," Cole said. "Not unless you can kill me and the baby. Can you kill an innocent...your own nephew?"
"I don't have to," Piper said.
As she spoke, swirling lights appeared in the living room, and Penny Halliwell appeared. She took the baby from Paige's arms as she reached the bottom of the stairs, then drew back into the dining room as she began the words of a summoning spell. "I call forth from space and time, matriarchs from the Halliwell line. Mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, our family's spirit without end, to gather now in this sacred space and help us bring this child to grace."
Spectral images of women, including those Piper recognized as her mother and Melinda Warren, who started their family line, began to appear. She couldn't help but scan the crowd for another familiar face, but did not see her. "This has to work," she murmured to Paige. "Grams said that a wiccanning is a witch's compass for good. It has to drive the Source out of the baby, even if only for a few minutes."
Grams turned toward the dead Halliwell witches, putting the baby in Patty's arms as her daughter's form solidified. "We bless this child," Penny began, "with the goodness that we are..."
"No!" Cole howled. He threw an energy ball but Grams turned and held up her hand and deflected it back towards him, knocking him into the wall. "You will not deny this child his ancestral blessing," she said.
As each Halliwell woman laid a hand on the baby, whispering words of blessing, the infant stopped crying, and a black cloud of power rose from his body. It swirled over to Cole as he picked himself up; he gasped and stiffened as it enveloped him, then vanished.
Piper and Paige hurried to Phoebe's side while Cole was distracted. The Seer oddly did not try to stop them, retreating to a far corner to observe. "Honey, wake up," Piper said, wrapping her arms around Phoebe. She was horrified to see that the lower half of Phoebe's body was soaked with blood, and the stain was spreading. Her face was pale, her breathing shallow.
But her eyelids fluttered at the sound of her sister's voice. "Piper?" she said weakly.
Cole looked at the three sisters, his eyes turned to flame. "Isn't this where we came in?" he said. He glanced to the Halliwell matriarchs, still busy with their blessing, protected by Grams' power, then back to the Charmed Ones. "Think you can vanquish me this time?" He conjured a ball of flame. "Or will you join the ghosts in the corner?"
Piper tried to freeze the ball of fire as Cole threw it, but she barely slowed it and had to duck, throwing her body over Phoebe's as it passed by. Paige called for the one that followed and sent it harmlessly in another direction, but it seemed Cole's powers were returning stronger and faster than their own, and two more fireballs followed. Piper desperately flung up her hands to freeze them, but they suddenly ricocheted back toward Cole as another spectral figure materialized between him and the Charmed Ones. "You!" he snarled.
"Sorry I'm late," Prue said. "Had to convince a few reluctant Elders that now was a good time to let me come down."
"Prue!" Piper whispered.
Her eldest sister didn't risk a glance back at her. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast," Prue said. "I can't hold him back long."
"Miss your sisters, Prudence?" Cole sneered. "Don't worry, they'll be with you soon enough." He threw another ball of flame at her; she held up her hand, sending it back towards him.
Piper pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket, unfolding it as Paige helped Phoebe sit up. "C'mon, Phoebe, stay with us," she said. "We need the Power of Three."
"I can't do it," Phoebe said weakly.
"Yes you can," Paige urged. "You have to be strong, Phoebe. For Cole and your little boy."
Phoebe tried to focus on the paper, reading the words aloud with her sisters. "In this time and in this place, release this spirit you displace. Set it free, that which you hate, and you instead receive his fate."
Cole snarled in rage and tried to throw a fireball at the table, but Prue continued to use her telekinesis to defend her sisters as Grams used her own power to defend the Wiccanning. "Piper, hurry!" Prue said.
Phoebe's eyes closed; Piper shook her. "We're almost there, honey, just hang in there. You can do it." Opening her eyes again, Phoebe continued with the second part of the spell with her sisters. "What's yours is his, what's his is thine, let your spirits cross the line. This burden is not his to bear, switch your essence through the air."
"No!" Cole shouted. He began to glow with a white light, which grew brighter and brighter until everyone present had to cover their eyes or look away. Then the light was gone, leaving Cole looking about himself in bewilderment. "Prue?" he said, confused to find her in front of him. "What happened? Where's the Source?"
Paige pulled the Dragon Blade from the back of her pants. "Phenomenal cosmic power," she said. "Itty bitty living space."
"Cole?" Phoebe called faintly.
Confusion forgotten, he pushed by Prue and moved quickly to the table. Piper and Paige moved to let him take her in his arms. "Phoebe?" he said, brushing her sweat-soaked hair from her face.
"Is it really you, baby?" she said faintly.
"It's me," he said. "I'm here. You're safe. Our baby is safe."
She smiled, and tears began to slide down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I tried to fight it, but I couldn't..."
"It's okay," he said. "I couldn't either...but everything's fine now."
She lifted her hand to his cheek. "Take care of our baby. Make sure he's good, like his father."
"Phoebe?" He looked down and finally registered all the blood. Looking frantically to Piper and Paige, he said, "Where's Leo?"
"I still can't orb," Paige said reluctantly. "Which means neither can he."
Cole tried to shimmer and was frustrated to find his ability to transport himself had not returned yet, either. "Phoebe, hang on!" he pleaded.
"Love you," she whispered, then her eyes closed and her body went limp in his arms.
