A/N: My heartfelt thanks goes out to all of you who are sticking with this story even after my long absence with it. It was so wonderful to get your reviews. I promise to thank you personally, but I really wanted to get this out as fast as I could. Hope this story is playing out how you like. If you got a minute please let me know either way.

Chapter 7

Leo rolled over onto his back and let out a painful groan. He felt as if he'd been run over by a freight train. The demons had really worked him over. There wasn't an inch of him that didn't hurt. It didn't help that along with blocking his orbing powers they blocked his self-healing one as well. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead as he gingerly dragged himself to a sitting position. The effort took away the last of his strength and he promptly passed out.

"How much farther?" Whispered Phoebe as she hung on tight to Cole's shirt.

He didn't respond, instead he turned a corner and entered a darkened room. Sure enough a small cage stood at one end, which held the unconscious Whitelighter.

Piper immediately went to it. "Oh my God Leo! Leo wake up!" She received no response from him and as she surveyed the damage to his face, she wasn't surprised.

"We need to get him out of there." Paige stated the obvious.

"Okay people, stand back." Piper ordered as she prepared to blast the lock.

Cole wanted to warn that the blast would alert the demons, but knowing Piper the way he did, he didn't think that was going to stop her so he remained quiet.

With a flick of her wrists, she blasted the lock in one try. Ignoring the lingering smoke, she flung open the door and rushed to her fallen husband. With gentle hands, she cupped his battered face. "Leo, honey can you hear me?"

His eyes fluttered and slowly opened. "Piper?" Her name coming out in a croaked whisper.

"I bet you're glad to see me."

He attempted a smile in response, but his lips were so swollen it turned into more of a grimace.

Paige had been keeping eye on their exit and was getting nervous. "Not to rush the reunion and all but we need to get out of here."

With Cole's help they managed to get Leo to his feet and out of the protected cage. Just as they exited the prison two demons appeared. "Hey what are you doing here?" The demand was followed by twin fireballs. The group was able to barely evade the onslaught. Piper's hands were occupied by supporting an injured Leo; it was up to the others to defend.

When another sphere came flying at them, Paige called, "Fireball." The ball orbed and then switch directions catching one of the demons in the arm. Not killing him, but it was enough to slow him down.

"Cole do something." Phoebe cried out as more fiery globes headed their way.

"Are you sure? I thought you didn't want me to use my powers. Remember we talked about it."

"Cole shut up and help us!"

He sent her a look but did as she requested. Letting an energy ball form just above the palm of his hand, he sent it hurling at the demons. The size of the sphere was enough to take out both attackers.

Phoebe took a breath. "We really need to get out of here." Grabbing onto Cole they shimmered out.

Paige came over to Piper and Leo. She hadn't been orbing people very long, she hoped she was up to it since Leo clearly wasn't.

They all materialized in the attic and once Leo was out from under the restrictions of the cage, his wounds immediately began to heal. When he was fully restored he headed right to the Book of Shadows.

Piper followed him. "What is it?"

"Imps." He informed her.

"Imps?"

He continued to flip the pages as he explained. "Yep, I heard a bunch of demons talking. Seems they aren't happy with these Imps messing with you guys. They don't want to tick you off."

"Pretty smart for demons." Phoebe mused.

Cole stood off to one side with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Jid and Jad are behind all of this?"

"You know them?" Phoebe asked as all eyes became focused on him.

"They're basically mischief makers. Nothing hard core."

"Sending demons after us is pretty hard core to me." She answered back.

"Maybe," Paige jumped in. "But the first demons didn't even attack. It was like they were playing with us."

Piper directed her question to Cole. "Do they have the power to switch Leo and your personalities?"

"Switch our what?" Leo asked completely confused.

His wife eyed him. "Your personalities, cause your acting a whole lot like Cole."

"And Cole is acting a whole lot like you." Phoebe finished.

While Leo tried to process this news, Cole's forehead was creased with a frown. "It's possible I suppose, although I've never known them to go this far. Usually they move objects around, disrupt lives. More often than not it's fairly harmless and they amuse the Source with their antics."

"Well I for one am not amused."

"I will second Phoebe." Paige added.

They didn't need to hear Piper's vote for it was already clear, but she did say, "How do we stop them and even more importantly, how do we get you guys back to normal?"

"Are you sure they switched us?" Leo asked still not sure.

"Are you kidding me?" Shot back his wife. "If going down to the underworld alone without telling anyone isn't enough, believe me there are plenty of other reasons. Trust me you are not acting like you."

"Hey you were the one who wanted me to take charge more." Leo defended with heat.

"Well I was wrong."

"Leo" Cole said in a soothing voice. "I think the girls maybe right. We need to follow their instincts on this."

Phoebe looked at Leo. "See! Did you hear him? This is not my Cole so we need to fix this and fast."

"Fine, fine." Huffed the annoyed Whitelighter. "Whatever."

Paige needed to get back on track. "Okay so back to the original question. How?"

"You know them Cole, any ideas?"

"If you vanquish them I'm not sure that will reverse everything. We may have to get them to switch us back first."

Piper knew it couldn't just be an easy vanquish. "Great, so we need to catch them first."

"That won't be easy." Cole went on to say. "They're tiny, fast and very clever."

Nodding her head, Piper said, "Then we'll just have to be faster and cleverer."

"We're already bigger." Grinned Paige, pleased to be working toward a solution.

Phoebe began pacing the floor. "We can write a spell to make them appear, then put them in a crystal cage, forcing them to cooperate."

"Our timing is going to have to be really good." Paige noted.

Piper's features held determination. "It will be. I want these little rodents. They've caused enough problems."

Luckily for the Charmed Ones, their two quarries were not around to hear the plan. Instead they were down in the underworld deflecting subtle assaults from fellow demons. Being favored by the Source didn't necessarily mean complete immunity.

The two were hiding in a cubby hole in the darkest depths of the underworld. "I don't know why they're so mad." Jid pouted. "We were just having some fun."

"They're just scardy cats." Soothed Jad. "They're afraid of the Charmed Ones. They think we're going to cause trouble for them with our playing."

"The witches don't even know it's us doing it." Jid whined as he continued to pout.

"Its okay Jid, we'll just hide out here till it blows over."

"But then we'll miss all the fun up there. All our hard work and we can't enjoy it."

Taking his hand, Jad grinned. "Maybe we should hide up there instead."

Jid's face lit up. "That's a perfect idea, let's go." And out they winked.