Timeless Mistakes Chapter 8, a charmed fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed (otherwise id have more money not to be able to spend while on lockdown)

Timeless Mistakes

The two demons who were trying to hide behind the massive facsimile of a tv screen gave a cry as they too were vanquished as a massive combustible orb blasted through the screen and incinerated them. The demonic bar which served as the main venue for the broadcast of the demonic reality show Witch Wars was a battleground as the four Charmed Ones and their half whitelighter from the future unleashed their devastating might upon all the assembled demons.

Prue was in the middle of the battle, using her hands to generate massive telekinetic waves, clearly making the most of her new and improved powers. Several demons screamed in terror as the shimmering white and blue energy passed over them, turning them into burning skeletons before they disappeared from existence. Meanwhile, her astral form (which she had somehow found time to practice with on top of everything else she was managing to do as well), which she had now figured out how to transmit outside her body without rendering her body comatose, was now engaging in hand to hand combat with a couple of rat demons who had been watching the show in the bar the family had hit.

Piper and Chris had arrived slightly later to the party, as they had raided the headquarters of the show itself, taking out the two demonic ringmasters of the show, Corr and Clea, with Piper vanquishing Clea with ease with a quick blast while Chris had used another combustive orb to vanquish Corr. Then arriving at the main demonic bar where the show was broadcast from, the two had formed an effective double act, distracting the terrified demons as Piper had begun blowing them up with careless abandon, pleased to get the opportunity to vent her frustrations. Chris was staying beside her, using his telekinesis and telekinetic orbing to keep attacks away from his mother while using his electrokinesis and his combustive orbing to vanquish the screaming, panicking demons who were all pinned inside the bar by the arrival of the Halliwell clan.

Phoebe, her mastery of martial arts coming to the fore, was like lightning as she moved around the room. Her expertise in hand to hand combat allowed her to constantly be on the move, and her levitation was clearly aiding her in her efforts, leaping up and kicking a Brute demon into the path of one of Piper's attacks. Her empathy power was also helping her, reflecting the hate and panic driven attacks of demons back at their creators. However as she dropped into a roll she came up to find herself face to face with a Trok demon, who roared at her and opened the mouths on both his heads in order to throw a force scream at her. Phoebe's eyes widened in panic as she tried to adjust her empathy power to reflect his attack, but to her great surprise, she felt a tingling in her fingers, and instinct goaded her on, and she raised her hands. To her great surprise, with a genuine smile blossoming onto her face, she felt the rage and hatred of the Trok coalesce around her fingers, which she reflected back into his two heads, the Trok suddenly screaming in pain as a glow of pale red energy lanced out from her fingertips. The Trok grabbed at both his heads in agony, screaming in pain clawing at his skulls before with a final bellow of anguished rage his heads exploded and he was vanquished in a flare of brimstone. Realising what this meant, Phoebe headed onto her next opponent.

Lastly there was Paige, orbing demons various athames and other associated weapons of murder around the room, catching the various demons in various ways, all of them falling like dominos. Using her orbing powers as well, fireballs and energy balls were blasted into the various demons who were still screaming as they attempted to escape the Charmed Ones' purge. As the various remaining demons tried to make good their escape, Paige took control of her projection power, making the glass of the various broken screens swirl into a tornado which sent shards of glass spinning everywhere, vanquishing more. The demon who had been hiding at the pool table suddenly found his pool cue turn into a massive thorny vine which lashed into him, vanquishing him as it cleaved through him. His girlfriend cried out in terror before the table she had been cowering under turned into a large cow, which promptly sat down on her and crushed her with a final scream.

The final screams faded and quiet reigned as the Halliwells looked round with satisfaction, a murderously bad demonic tv show had just been cancelled, and without its organisers and its fans there would be little chance of some other demonic network picking it up and trying again.

"That was very therapeutic." Piper commented idly, cautiously testing the one solid chair remaining in the place to make sure it wouldn't collapse before she sat down on it, rubbing her belly and feeling the growing form of baby Chris kick in response. Satisfied her baby was alright, she then petted the cow that Paige had created, which had trotted over looking for some attention.

"You shouldn't have come here after you took out the organisers." Prue told her idly, frowning as she sniffed at the ends of her blonde hair, a fireball had singed the ends of her hair.

"I was fine, they were all mostly in a panic anyway, besides, I'm going stir crazy being stuck inside Magic School all day. Especially when all the staff actively avoid me for fear I'll interrogate them about their intentions towards Wyatt." She said with slight amusement, indeed, poor Sigmund had had to have a soothing potion made for him after his last intensive round of questions with Piper, still determined to make sure nobody in the school was considering ever being a threat towards Wyatt.

"Yeah, Gideon's now pestering me to make sure you don't keep reducing his staff to hysterical tears, maybe ease off the gas a little?" Chris asked, amused, as Gideon had ambushed him that very morning, complaining that as he couldn't find his father (who was still searching high and low for Rennek), perhaps he would have more luck in reigning in his mother's nervous energy.

Needless to say, so far he had failed miserably.

"Hey, did you see what I did to the Trok Demon? You know that this means!" Phoebe said excitedly, and Paige rolled her eyes.

"Yes my dear, it means you have a new power, so does that mean you'll stop resenting my projection power quite as much?" she asked, and Phoebe shook her head while grinning.

"Nah, you still got it before me. Any idea what it is oh wise nephew?" she asked, and Chris frowned a little, considering his answer.

"I didn't catch much of it, but from what I saw it seems to be a more active version of your empathy power, like how mom's blasting power was a nastier version of her freezing power. Basically, you can take the emotions of your enemy, or of yourself, and give them form, it's called psychic reflection, so you went all Sith Lord and turned his hatred against him. It's called psychic reflection." He explained, standing protectively behind his mother, but to his slight surprise, Phoebe's expression suddenly fell, like her balloon of happiness had a slight puncture.

She then briefly exchanged concerned, slightly alarmed looks with Prue and Piper.

"Phoebe, you're a different person, we all are. That future where you killed Cal Greene has clearly changed, I was dead, Piper had a son instead of a daughter, I'm sure it's all changed by now." Prue soothed, clasping Phoebe's shoulder while Chris and Paige exchanged baffled looks.

"But I'm assuming this power is how I killed him, I probably hated him to death. And I-" she began, sounding scared, but Piper shot her sister a quelling look, one which broached no argument.

"Nope, no way, not a chance in hell. You are not evil Phoebe, and despite what had happened in that future, I can't imagine you killing anyone just for the sheer hell of it. Prue's right, everything's changed…mostly," she admitted, after all, things were now looking a little more alike that original timeline than previously, "and besides, like with Wyatt maybe growing up evil, you have three kickass sisters who will kick your sorry ass if you go dark side. Not going to happen. So, just celebrate the fact that you have a new power, and let the future come when it does." She advised, and Phoebe smiled a little, nodding to herself while Chris and Paige shrugged at each other, totally clueless.

Prue looked around in satisfaction this had been a very profitable day all told, and numerous demonic threats vanquished. Gideon had warned them about the demonic show, Witch Wars, which had already killed three witches, and so the family had gone into battle, and ending the show before the organisers garnered any more power.

"You realise she's going to be hell to live with now she has a new power? Speaking of, I now have a new power, so does Phoebe, and we've all had a power boost, Prue can multitask with her power, is this spinning out from my projection power or from becoming the Power of Four?" she asked, and Chris mused on it for a second.

"It's probably from becoming the Power of Four, which your projection power is part of anyway. Hopefully it means all your powers are starting to balance out." He told them, and Prue nodded, pleased.

"Well it's certainly fun kicking ass in more varied and interesting ways. Alright, Paige, I need to get home, I've got a date with the Mercers. See you two later." She said, blowing Piper and Chris a kiss, and the three sisters orbed out, leaving Piper and Chris in the ruined demon bar alone.

"Hmm, a bit of a fixer upper but imagine P3 mark two, catering to demons." Piper said brightly, and Chris grinned.

"Somehow I doubt the demons would want to come to a bar owned by a Charmed One, especially when we just slaughtered so many of them. Ready?" he asked, and she nodded, with him helping her to her feet.

"Which reminds me actually, could you run an errand for me in the morning?" she asked with a mysterious smile as they orbed back to Magic School, while Chris orbed the cow that Paige had created safely to a farm he knew outside the city.

Candor was pointedly ignoring a smirking Xar as Gideon orbed in.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked Asmodeus, who rolled his eyes.

"He's mad because Xar had you get the Charmed Ones to take his favourite show off the air by destroying Witch Wars, he's got nothing to watch now. Honestly, at least you aren't nearly as childish as this lot are." He grumbled, and Gideon suppressed a smirk, it was reassuring to know that no matter how different the two sides were, the upper echelons of both sides were just as capable of being just as petty and childish as each other.

"Is all prepared at your end? I have everything in place, all is prepared to move on your signal." He assured them, and Asmodeus nodded.

"Good, we too are nearly in readiness. Rennek is preparing the last of his minions as we speak, and Sirk is onto his fourth victim. The wards of your school?" he asked, and Gideon felt a wave of nausea pass through him at the very thought.

He knew it was necessary, it was all part of the plan. Barbas had to be able to get into the school in order to lower Piper's defences, and as such Gideon had allowed the wards preventing Barbas astral projection power to be lowered. But the thought of letting the Demon of Fear loose on the fears and worries of the whole school was not sitting well with him at all, he feared Barbas would view it as an invitation to do whatever the hell he damn well pleased with his students. And furthermore, as the Triad was still operating in secrecy they hadn't reclaimed the whole underworld, which meant any opportunistic demons happening to be passing might also realise the weakness of his school's defences which in turn would be its own disaster.

"I have lowered them to allow Barbas to perform his part." He said stiffly, and Asmodeus nodded.

"Excellent. All is in readiness, Rennek is prepared to strike, your plans move to fruition, Barbas and Katya are in place and our full power is nearly assembled. Don't worry Elder, soon this will all be over. And then the boy will no longer be a consideration, and the Power of Four shall be no more." He promised, and Gideon felt the bottom fall out of his stomach as he considered the words of the leader of the Triad

Now, wasn't that interesting?

Cole had been in the underworld for a few days now, and had still not seen hide nor hair of Leo or indeed of Chris demonic contacts, Nomed and Kyra. Having made the acquaintance of Kyra back in the day he had gone to her lair, but hadn't been able to locate it which meant she must have taken some severe precautions in order to keep her lair hidden. This told Cole two things.

Firstly, that meant that she, as a seer, was so afraid of whatever was brewing down here that she too had gone into hiding. Secondly, it also meant that as a seer, she had failed to predict whatever was now happening, otherwise she would have prepared long before now.

So adding these two things together led to one conclusion: whatever was happening down here was nasty, it had the demons worried, and it had come totally out of the blue.

And now, here was a demon of a sort that Cole hadn't seen in years skulking around the lowest levels of the underworld.

A Scather demon, formerly the elite, leather clad bodyguards and minions of the Triad and of the Source. Cole actually thought that the sisters had vanquished the vast majority of them, aided and abetted by him at times. However, if there was one thing that the Scather demons were good at (protecting their bosses not quite so much since he had killed the Triad himself without interference and the girls had taken out the Source and the entire Infernal Council), it was finding power.

And so who better to tail when there was a new, unknown power in the underworld?

"So why aren't you seeing Henry again?" Piper asked over the phone as she relaxed at Magic School watching as Chris read to his brother.

"Because he's a cheapskate! You don't invite someone on a date and then ask them to pay half." Paige grumbled, and Piper frowned, casting her mind back.

"When did he ask you on a date?" she asked, and Paige made a noise of irritation.

"The other day! You were there, when you did your spot check to make sure that we had cleaned the bathroom." She grumbled, and Piper smirked, the look of terror on Paige's face at the time had made it perfectly clear that they hadn't cleaned the bathroom.

"Um, honey, he didn't ask you on a date, he asked you to meet him for lunch at Nate's." she said kindly, and she heard nothing but silence for a moment.

"Wait, really? Oh no, what have I done! I'll call you later!" she wailed, and Piper laughed as her sister hung up the phone to go and see if she could still salvage a relationship with her would be boyfriend.

But what if Paige couldn't work things out with Henry? And after all, she and Leo themselves were still in a state of flux, well, their whole lives were really. What chance did any of them really have for the future the way things stood at the moment?

And then there was still the mysterious threat plaguing them, threatening to turn her sweet, blond haired little boy currently reading with his brother from the future, into the greatest threat the world had ever seen. Could they even beat this mysterious threat? And even if they did, what if that wasn't enough, what if Wyatt was just inherently…evil, absurd though it sounded?

As Piper mulled these things over, wrapping her arms around herself as she did, the invisible, astral form of Barbas standing behind her smiled as it vanished into nothing.

Everything was in place. With one last gesture, he didn't want to overly traumatise the poor fellow, Gideon now had everything in place. It was done. He took a deep breath, watching as the ground before him started to undulate. This was for the greater good, to stop the greatest threat the world had ever seen. And besides, he thought with a rueful smile, this was hardly evil, in any way, shape or form.

In fact one certain Charmed One would most likely view this as a miracle.

Which of course was exactly what he intended, he mused as he orbed out in a swirl of purple orbs as the ground continued to buckle and move.

The last gasp left the body of Inspector Cortez, and he fell onto the table, collapsing it in a crash of broken wood, his eyes looking into oblivion as he faded into nothing, blood gushing from his various wounds.

Sirk felt a rush of power enter him as yet another name was crossed off his list. That was the third victim, and every time, he felt his power grow, and could feel the scales of his reptilian skin creep more across his face. And next on the list was someone called Donnie.

Smiling to himself, Sirk shimmered towards his next target.

"Then take my hand my friend, and let us get you out of here." Gideon said, offering his hand to the man before him, and with that, the man was freed.

This too was now in readiness, all prepared to make their move tomorrow. Though Gideon had to admit, freeing this man from his predicament didn't exactly sit well with him, but he had no choice. He was essential, everyone had their part to play, but to that end, Chris also needed to be distracted, not just the sisters, and this man was uniquely suited for the task.

Didn't mean he had to like it though, he mused, as he orbed out leaving the man waiting in the small pocket realm he had prepared just for him.

Prue's heart was in her mouth as she passed drinks round to the various members of the Mercer crime family who were in attendance at McCorrigans. This was their monthly poker night, and all of the big shots of the crime family were here. First of all, upon her entry, she had met the extremely tall man with silvery eyes who had frisked her on the way in.

She had expected him to rather abuse the privilege of frisking her, but he had merely done a professional job before admitting her, albeit reluctantly. From both Sheridan's information and the gossip provided by McKinnery, she had identified this man as August, though if that was his first or second name she wasn't sure. A tall, imposing man with silver creeping in at his temples of his otherwise black hair, he was the bodyguard to Mr Mercer himself, and also the mentor to his young son, Christopher.

Next in line was the young black haired man who was clearly Christopher Mercer, the son of said crime boss. A sallow young man with black bangs, he had eyed Prue appreciatively as she had entered, making sure the tattoos he had on his arm which indicated that he had killed someone at his age were in full view. Figuring he was the least of her issues, she classified him as a less significant threat than anyone else.

Up next were the three lieutenants who reported to the two Mercers. Firstly there was an Asian gentleman, black hair streaked with grey, a small neat moustache but a wicked look in his eyes. This one was Soung, and he was responsible for the various trafficking operations of the family. However, as Sheridan's files classified him as gay, she had nothing to fear from him physically, other than the suspicious look he was giving her.

Next was the one in charge of all their drugs operations, a small, meek looking man named Wesker. Bald, older and with thick glasses, he hardly looked the part among all these other cutthroats however from the information Prue had read, he had more than earned his stripes on the danger front, and his soft, melodic voice betrayed a murderous personality. He had certainly attracted all sorts of attention over the years, and Prue had him identified as one of the most significant threats.

The final of the chiefs of staff such as they were was the massive man built like a tank called Crass. Towering way above Prue, muscle bound with dark skin and dreadlocks dropping from his head, he had one milky eye which had been damaged by a boxing bout when he was younger. Tall, imposing and quietly brutal, he took great pleasure in crippling his enemies before finishing them off. This man was in charge of the vice, and the way he was looking at Prue was like someone in a butcher's eyeing up a hunk of meat.

The last two men present were the most dangerous men in the room however. First of all there was Randolph Mercer, the second in command of the entire operation who reported solely to his brother. A tall man, he had a slight stoop, but his wicked, clever eyes surveyed the room constantly, his eyes falling on McKinnery and on Prue far too often for her liking. With a receding hairline and his black hair streaked with grey, he looked the very image of a traditional crime boss.

However, the most dangerous man in the room was clearly his brother. Ryker Mercer was the all powerful leader of the Mercer crime family, and the man who essentially ran and controlled all of the criminal goings on in San Francisco, from vice, to drugs, to smuggling to murder. Also tall like his brother, well built, he was clad in an immaculate suit, with thick brown hair and eyebrows to match. His jaw had a strong set about them and his eyes betrayed a coldness that was unnatural in most people. This man wasn't just a criminal, he was a predator, and all the more dangerous for it.

And here was Prue, serving them all drinks as they played poker, trying hard not to listen to the various less than savoury dealings of them all, the sexist remarks, and the occasional touch or squeeze of the ass (that was the work of the son however), all the while with McKinnery looking at her worriedly as she ambled between them all.

"Do I have to spell it out to you? Finish him." Mercer himself said some three hours later, and Prue winced internally at the thought of that landlord who was trying to resist selling out to the mob who was about to meet his maker far sooner than the poor guy undoubtedly had planned.

The son, Christopher flexed his arm at Prue with a wink, and she had to suppress a small, disbelieving smile. This kid really thought he had a chance with an older woman? Really? Even without the whole being dead for three years thing, he was still double his age, old enough to be his mother and he seriously thought he had a chance? The others had either expressed an interest in other ways (well her glamour was pretty, that was kind of the point), after all Wesker had thanked her at one point, and Crass had softened his gaze to a less than murderous glare, but none of the others were showing an interest quite as intensely as the boy, which was making Prue feel all icky knowing that this kid was trying hard for her glamoured form and was actually deluded enough to believe he had a chance.

This was wrong, this was so wrong.

And that was all provided her glamour held. After all, she had never done this sort of spell before, or generated it for so long. She knew Paige wouldn't lead her wrong, but then glamouring was more a part of Paige's natural skillset being half whitelighter than it was Prue's. And even then, even if she made some progress, she could be locked in this cover for months, maybe even years just to get her life back. And there was still the threat after Wyatt, threatening all of their tomorrows. What if doing this, by being this little bit selfish, allowed their unseen enemy to move into a position where they could finally get their hands on Wyatt? But magic had cost her her life once already, she didn't want to rely on it too much in this instance, but here she was, using it as a crutch basically in order to ensure she was still able to keep on living now that she had been resurrected. Was that selfish? She was terrified of the future, terrified they wouldn't be able to save it, but she was also terrified for her future, even before she had died she had had virtually no life outside of the magic, she had let it dominate her life. Was that the fate that awaited her again? She had said as much to her sisters back at Camp Skylark, the similarities between her and her mother were frightening, and in the end the prophecy she had made about her dying young because their mother had had turned out to be true all too soon, only a year and a half later, that bastard Shax had ripped her out of her life, her destiny and condemned her to sit on the side-lines.

And what if she was discovered? Her family could be put right in the crosshairs all because of her stubborn refusal to rely too much on magic. And even if they survived, she could be condemning them to a life on the run if the Mercers figured everything out. Or, and she was ashamed of herself for even thinking about this, what if they just killed her again and she was again ripped from life, her story cut short, long before its time? She loved living, she wanted a life with her family, her sisters, maybe find a man to replace the void left by Andy's death, the void she had never filled, and she didn't want to be killed again before all that had a chance to happen…

"Hey, bitch, I'm talking to you!" Christopher yelled at her, suddenly jerking out of her musings, while unseen and unknown to her Barbas astral form vanished into nothing.

"Oh sorry! I'm so sorry, I-" she prattled breathlessly, stupid, so stupid, she might have just risked everything, blown everything!

"Wait." Mercer commanded, and the whole room went still, and Prue's heart was hammering in her chest, she had been so stupid, how was she going to get out of this one, was Chris still floating in the ether, but then she would be endangering her nephew, what the hell did she do?

Mercer got to his feet, straightened his suit, then moved towards Prue, stopping behind his son.

"You seem elsewhere love, there's clearly something on your mind. And the last thing you need is any form of disrespect," he said in a soft, dangerous voice, and Prue felt her knees shaking in terror, "especially at the hands of my own flesh and blood."

He then turned, suddenly grabbed his son by the back of the head and crashed his head down onto the table. Christopher gave an exclamation of pain, clutching his forehead and swearing under his breath as he rubbed his forehead.

"My apologies ma'am. My son is on one of his first poker games, though if his attitude to the staff doesn't improve, it will be his last," he growled, and Christopher hung his head in shame, not looking at his father, "and you clearly have a lot on your mind. Perhaps I can make it up to you? Perhaps dinner, at my place, tomorrow?" he asked with a genuine smile, and despite herself Prue felt herself suddenly blushing.

"Um, yeah, that would be great, thank you." She said, despite the look of reservation on McKinnery's face, and Mercer smiled.

"Excellent. I look forward to it my dear. Now, another gin and tonic please when you're ready." He said, heading back to his seat and sending another glare at his son as he did so.

Prue staggered over to the bar, her knees still shaking, and despite himself, McKinnery allowed himself a small smirk and poured her a shot of whisky with a wink.

That had been too close. Far too close, her mind had to be focused during all this, otherwise the result could be worse than disastrous. But, she had to admit, while slightly older than she was, Mercer was a good looking man. God help her, she wasn't getting a type was she?

No, this was strictly professional, and besides, she had been so thrown by her unexpected tangent and her fear that it had affected her far more than it should have. But despite the closeness of the call, there was a little talisman of triumph within her.

She had just been invited to dinner by the head of the Mercer crime family of all things. That was a massive leap forward.

With that little light at the end of the tunnel hanging above her, she allowed herself to relax ever so slightly as Mercer raised his glass to her with the gin she had just provided him, and that little talisman of light kept her going till the end of her shift, which curiously, just seemed to fly by.

Henry gave Paige a kiss goodbye as she headed home, just as the sun was clearing over the top of the buildings, it was a beautiful morning in San Francisco and Henry was in a very good mood. Paige had appeared late last night, explaining to him about the mix up, and with that resolved the two of them had gone on a proper date, which had turned into a nightcap, which had turned into…well the big, goofy smile he had on his face as he headed to work.

Walking around the cemetery as he always did on his way to work to pick up his morning cup of coffee, a man suddenly stumbled out of the graveyard, and Henry took a step back, and despite his good mood, felt himself reaching for his gun.

The guy looked extremely disorientated, perhaps drunk, his eyes were wide as plates (that suggested being high instead) and Henry had been a cop long enough, particularly in this city, to know that that wasn't good. Especially when the guy was coming out of the graveyard.

The man was around Henry's height, had dark hair and was well built. He was dressed in a suit that had seen better days, it was covered with holes as though it had been eaten by something and it too was caked with mud. The man himself was covered in mud and dirty, it was clumped in his unkempt previously spiky hair. His eyes were round and wild, and he was squinting an awful lot. Dirt was caked around his fingernails and he was walking strangely, as though his legs weren't working properly.

"Ok man? Nice and easy. I'm Henry Mitchell, I'm a police officer, are you alright?" he asked, looking at the man in concern, and suddenly the man fixed him with a gaze in which the pupils were so wide that his eyes looked black.

"P-pleice?" he slurred, looking angry with himself, and Henry had to admit, this guy was one of the stranger cases he had seen.

Perhaps he had been drugged, or assaulted in the graveyard. Either way, Henry had to get him some help.

"Yeah, a police officer yeah. Want to tell me what happened to you?" he asked, and the man staggered towards him, his hands clamping down on Henry's shoulder.

"Please…Prue…need to speak…Prue…Halliwell." He gasped, and Henry's stomach dropped like a stone.

Nobody other than the small circle who already knew was meant to know about Prue's continued existence. For this guy to suddenly know about, looking like he had been attacked…

Oh god this was way above his pay grade, but if he told Sheridan, she would pull the plug on the whole operation, and god knows what would happen to Prue, especially if she had indeed been rumbled. Besides, she had a meeting at city hall today because of something to do with one of her old cases. That left Morris, he would know what to do.

"Ok man, let's just keep that under wraps ok? Nice and quiet now and let's get you someplace safe, and no offence, but you kind of stink so I'll just drive with the window open ok? Guess that kyboshes my coffee." Henry muttered, taking the man gently by the arm as he took him towards his car just up the street wondering just what he had gotten himself involved in this time.

Chris jerked awake in the set of rooms he was sharing with his mother and Wyatt in Magic School, breathing heavily. That hadn't been the usual dream he had about Wyatt. Ever since their trip to the future and their battle with him which had resulted in the vanquishing of his older brother, Chris had suffered nightmares, visualising the death of his older brother, the grief and guilt tormenting him at night.

Tonight had been different.

Tonight's dream had had Wyatt constantly calling for him in some sort of labyrinth filled with sand, with a gentle golden light wafting through it. Chris constantly searched for him but couldn't find him anywhere even though the sounds of battle seemed to be approaching from afar. The pounding of cannons, the roar of the guns of the Sky Annihilators and the screams of the dying as battle raged around them, and all through it all, all Chris heard was Wyatt calling his name, yet no matter where he searched, he could find no sign of his brother.

Chris rubbed his eyes. Wyatt was dead, gone. Yet that dream…it had been like the ones he had had before Wyatt had come back to the past in order to bring him home.

He shook his head. He had a job to do, and the fact that he missed his big brother, not to mention the guilt he felt for having a role in his death, they weren't going to help him preventing that terrible future from coming true in the first place.

Grumbling darkly to himself about his dreams, he headed through to join his mother and his brother, the very one he was here to save.

Prue leaned back against the kitchen counter, her eyes closed, savouring the warm, full taste of her cup of coffee. Yeah, being dead and stuff, she had missed her sisters, her friends, but she had to admit, being dead and not being able to enjoy a good, strong cup of coffee, that had been one of the worst parts, and hence explained why here she was, sipping her coffee contentedly as she pondered her next move.

Mercer's invitation certainly offered avenues that she previously hadn't had available to her. While she doubted that Mercer was genuinely interested in anything more than a superficial level, it was certainly the break she had been looking for. Invited by the head of the Mercer crime family himself, him clearly fancying her glamour, now she was the Trojan Horse, within the walls, now she just had to figure out how to sack the city.

Perhaps it was time to consider a little magic. Perhaps the truth spell? Or an enchantment of some sort? But no, she had to play this smart, and she couldn't really go ahead with any sort of plan until she had at least talked things over with Sheridan and Darryl. And she didn't want to expose herself, or risk blowing everything she had done so far.

"Morning honey." Phoebe said with a smile as she entered the kitchen, getting herself a cup of coffee and leaning beside her sister at the counter, wrapping an arm around her.

"Morning Pheebs."

"Did I interrupt your thought process?" she asked, sipping her coffee and Prue smirked.

"Slightly, I'm debating my next move, I've been invited to dinner." She explained, and Phoebe dropped her arm, her eyes widening.

"Hardly back from the dead and already a date! Who's the guy?" she asked, and Prue snorted in amusement.

"Don't get too excited, it's part of my cover, Mercer himself invited me to dinner to make up for the behaviour of his little brute of a son."

Phoebe looked shocked for a second before taking a measured sip of coffee, a mischievous look in her eye.

"First Bane and now Mercer, you certainly like your crime bosses." She teased, and Prue glared at her affectionately.

"I don't like Mercer like that, and besides, I'm not going to actually do anything with him anyway. The point is, I've been asked to dinner with him, which gets me inside the lion's den as it were, which means, I might have a chance to find something I need to bring them all down. However, while I'm good, like I say I don't like him like that and I won't use sex to get me ahead, and besides, he's far too smart to cave on the first night with something like that." She explained, and Phoebe frowned pensively, mulling over the implications.

"You're thinking of using magic?" she asked, receiving a nod in response, and Phoebe mused for a second longer, "well, the truth spell would work I suppose, but we both know that can backfire, and well," she said, a slight grin on her face.

Prue gave her an amused look.

"It's something of an occupational hazard when I have a very nosey sister and a nephew from the future and I'm not entirely sure that you could be trusted if I managed to cast it on all of us again." She taunted, prompting Phoebe to stick out her tongue before getting back to her point.

"Or maybe we could adapt it, if he's attracted to you, maybe some sort of blend of the truth spell, the spell to stretch the imagination and some enchantment spell? I'll hit the Book after work, maybe see if I can write a spell for you." She said, and Prue smiled.

"Thanks sis. Right, I suppose I better summon our taskmaster see what-" she began, just as Paige appeared, creeping in through the back door, clearly in an effort not to get caught.

She turned, all ready to sneak up the stairs and found her two older sisters smiling expectantly and waiting for her, and she sighed, deflating under their gaze and muttering something rude under her breath.

"Well well well, look who's doing the walk of shame!" Phoebe cried with glee, and Prue raised an eyebrow to look at her baby sister.

"On the first date after your first fight as well, for shame." She chided, and Paige grumbled under her breath.

"I didn't go there intending for anything to happen you know, I went there to clear the air after my little mix up, and he was very nice, we hit a club, we had a nightcap, then…"

"Then you put out on the first date you sleaze." Prue giggled, and Paige shot her an affronted look, her cheeks slightly red though she did seem quite amused.

"Hardly, besides, I quite like Henry, and it was an accident, and you missy Prue aren't quite as white as you're painting yourself, you also did it with Andy on the first date." She retorted, and Prue's mouth dropped in outrage, and then she twirled, long hair billowing, towards Phoebe who suddenly seemed to have a very guilty expression on her face and seemed to be contemplating drowning herself in her coffee cup.

"You told her!" she accused, and Phoebe looked at her guiltily.

"I'm sorry, it slipped out besides it's ancient history, not exactly a secret is it?" she pointed out, and vowing mentally to get revenge later, she turned back to Paige, who looked remotely unabashed.

"So all the teasing aside, I am happy for you honey. And Henry does seem a nice guy." She told her, and Paige smiled.

"Thanks Prue. Right, I'm away to shower, hopefully we can get through today without any major crisis ruining it!" she said brightly, and as she left, Prue and Phoebe exchanged a look.

"She just jinxed us didn't she?" Phoebe asked in a deflated voice.

"Oh yeah, big time." Prue concurred, kneading her temples with her hand and wondering what fresh hell was about to be unleashed on them now.

Darryl entered the office to see it abuzz with the usual gossip and clamour. Heading to his desk, he quickly checked to make sure Sheridan wasn't in yet. She might be helping Prue, but the fact that she had nothing in life except her job, no man or even a pet to speak of, and the fact that she was so obsessively driven, he was sure that that was going to come back and bite them in the ass at some point. And her just being there put him on edge, he felt he couldn't relax around her. He could relax around Andy when he had been alive, and the two of them had been a good team. Even Henry, the lad was a good mix of driven and proseffional, yet was also able to relax a little, and he was also a good partner. Just a pity he was determined to go back to being a parole officer once he had finished his stint with being a detecetive, but Darryl would have to see if he could maybe try and persuade him.

And besides, he was sure Paige wouldn't object, the officer on the door said that despite the vagrant that Henry had already picked up before his shift had even started, he had still come into work with a massive smile on his face which left little to the imagination.

But Sheridan, she was, well not creepy exactly, that wasn't the right word, but she was so driven and the number of plot holes in his and Prue's cover story meant that she was never going to let this go, which would eventually put the girls and him in danger if he couldn't get her to drop it. It was worrying he had to say.

"Morning Morris." The captain said, coming out of his office holding a file.

"Morning sir. From the look on your face you have something juicy for me?" he asked, and the captain smiled grimly.

"Afraid so, another one for your wheelhouse of the 'freaky' cases. And besides, Sheridans at city hall and should be all day, so you should get a chance to teach Mitchell all you know." The captain said, handing the case file to Darryl, who frowned as he read it.

"Four murder cases, all the exact same MO, each of them stabbed five times in the stomach. No known connection between any of the victims, other than the murders themselves. But here's the freaky bit: they were all killed within an hour of each other while living in different parts of the city." The captain explained, and Darryl had to suppress a groan.

Yep, that meant it was a freaky case, which meant it was his problem, which meant it was a Halliwell related problem.

"Wait a minute, that's…" Darryl said in shock, looking at the names of one of the victims, and the captain nodded, his eyes grim yet also sad.

"Yeah, Cortez. He was a good man. I don't need to tell you, people will need this solved Morris. Good luck and godspeed." He said brusquely, clapping Darryl on the shoulder and heading back to his office.

Darryl looked at the file. Four murders all in the space of an hour in the same night. Anyone else would automatically assume the involvement of someone else, but Darryl obviously knew more than your average joe cop. Shane Richards, Jake Grisanti, Inspector Alvarro Cortez, and Donnie Albright, all killed the same night with virtually no connection to each other, other than the method of their murder. He sighed. Cortez had been a good man, and had moved himself away from any cases involving the Halliwells after his near death experience by foolishly trying to kill the Source when he had shown up at the manor, and since then had been at another station in the city. He was a good man and a good cop, and didn't deserve to be murdered, especially for some weird supernatural reason.

Darryl sighed, he supposed he better get cracking, now, how to teach Henry everything he knew yet not reveal the help he was going to have to get from the Halliwells? And more importantly, how the hell did he hide it from Sheridan when she returned?

An Ling had cut him, and he was furious. Raging in fury, Sirk tackled the young zen master, sending her sprawling into the stone fountain water feature bubbling behind her. As she stirred, reaching for her knife, the half demon smirked as he grabbed her by her hair and pulled her over.

"No, please!" she gasped, but her plea was cut short as he plunged his athame into her stomach.

Her eyes widened in terror, and then in resignation as he stabbed her four more times, but by the time he had finished the life had gone from her body. Sirk smiled, feeling another rush of power enter him as that was another body crossed off the Triads list. So many other people on the list, so little time to murder them all.

And once he was done, well, the Triad had been killed by a half demon before. Perhaps history could repeat itself, he thought with a slight smirk as he shimmered towards his next target.

Phoebe was at her office, mulling over how exactly to phrase the spell she was trying to write to help Prue at her date with the mob boss later on tonight. This one was certainly a step down on all fronts from Bane, Bane had been hot and hadn't been nearly so scary, Mercer was just a lot more murderous than Bane had ever been, and didn't even have the excuse of a demon whispering in his ear like Bane had had.

As she mused, she was then distracted by a shimmer, and was about to defend herself when she saw that it was Cole who had shimmered in. Thankful her door was closed, and standing down, she was about to say something when she caught a whiff of him.

"Jesus, Cole! You stink! Haven't you heard of a shower?" she asked, as he stank of smoke, sulphur and brimstone, and he looked vaguely apologetic.

"Sorry, ran into a smog demon, he took some killing. Guess what I've found?" he asked with that cocky grin that she had once fallen for.

"Unless its some soap or shampoo, I don't want to know!" she exclaimed, opening her window to try and vent the room out.

Cole rolled his eyes and waited for her to sit back down, and finding the air at least passably breathable, she sat back down at her desk.

"What did you find? Did you find Chris' two demonic contacts?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"No, I did look at the seer's place, but there was no sign of her or of his other one anywhere." He informed her, and she raised an eyebrow.

"You know where the seer lives?" she asked, and Cole grinned in that maddening way of his.

"We had a few tumbles in the hay back in the old days, why, jealous?" he taunted, and she felt her anger flare but remembering what happened last time she got so riled up she took a breath to calm herself down all the while glaring at him.

"No. Absolutely not. So what did you find?" she asked in a restrained tone, ignoring the smug look on Cole's face, she'd let him get to her again.

"Scather demons." He said triumphantly, but the nonplussed look in her face didn't give him the reaction he was hoping for.

"Who?" she asked blankly, and he rolled his eyes.

"Scather demons, know the ones guarding the coronation site when I became the Source? They were Scather demons, they're like the elite guards of the highest levels of the underworld." He explained, and she snorted.

"Well they're not exactly good at their job then are they? You took out the Triad single handed and we took out the Source, numerous times I might add, and the council, so if they're looking for anything down there, surely it should be a new job?"

Cole grinned and saw the slight smile she had playing on her lips, yeah, despite everything they had been a good team back in the day and between them had taken down a load of nasties.

"Well that's actually what I'm wondering. If the Scather demons are on the move, there's only one thing they could be looking for: power. And trust me, if there's power to be found down there, if anyone's got a chance of finding it, it will be them." He explained, and Phoebe looked at him with that same intrigued fire she had once looked at him with.

"So you think you can track them back to whoever the new big bad is down there?" she asked, and he nodded.

"That's the plan anyway. Let me know if you need me, hopefully I'll be back soon with news." He said, then faded away, leaving Phoebe behind just as a very harassed Barbas appeared invisibly beside her.

He'd been delayed, he had intended to make Paige fear that Henry would dump her as soon as he found out she was a witch, but Prue had kept pestering her sister with questions while she had been in the bathroom so eventually he had given it up as a bad job. He had then tried with Piper at Magic School but hadn't wanted to linger there for too long, too many people about, besides her time travelling son had powers that the Elder hadn't yet accounted for, so there was a chance, however small, that he might be able to figure out he was there so he had abandoned ship there too.

That only left him with Phoebe, and fortunately with her demonic ex husband floating around her mind was a fertile field for sowing many seeds of fear. Casting his hand over the back of her, he felt a surge of all of her fears, particularly those to do with Cole, coming flooding from her.

Phoebe frowned as she considered the problem before her. It still didn't sit right, relying on Cole, especially at a time such as this with some unknown threat after Wyatt. She knew he wanted to be good, like always. He always wanted to be good. He just…couldn't be. Eventually the man he always had been, the demon part of him, the evil part of him, would always come back to haunt them all, and that's when people died and it blew up in all of their faces. And how could they tell Cole wasn't in some way involved in all this?

And at the end of the day…Cole had been her true love for years, and despite all the hatred and bitterness that had passed between them, he was still her most significant relationship to date. And she knew he was always going to love her, despite how much she didn't want him to. And there was one small part of her that would never be able to truly let go of her feelings for him, and that was what scared her.

She couldn't go back there, she couldn't let that happen again. Despite how much she had blamed Cole, she knew that she did have some of the blame to share for everything that had happened with them. But with him back, could she keep him under control? What if he thought of some god-awful way to make sure she fell in love with him again?

What if he somehow managed to lure her to the dark side again?

Pleased with the tumultuous thoughts that he had managed to create inside her head, Barbas smirked as he left Phoebe to her fears and worries, all of this contributing towards overcoming the final hurdle.

"Bad news Inspector, another one's just been found." The clerk told Darryl, and he bit back a curse.

Yep, a woman this time, murdered the exact same way as the other victims, all with the five knife wounds, this one had been found in an abandoned warehouse but Darryl was more convinced than ever that this wasn't a normal human bad guy and was instead some demonic son of a bitch.

"Thanks." He said, wondering who best to call.

Paige was now ruled out automatically because of her relationship with Henry, he knew they'd all wind up finding out anyway but he still liked to maintain that element of professional decorum if only to make himself feel better. Phoebe had her own job to do, and Prue was focused on the Mercers. And besides, he thought with a slight smile, Piper was probably going stir crazy with nothing to do so she was probably the best option to call anyway.

He just wondered if Magic School had a fax machine.

"They're coming through now Darryl, give me a minute." Piper said down the phone

Upon receiving Darryl's call, she had gone hunting through the school, the terrified staff members actively running away from her every time she tried to ask them if the place did own a fax machine. Darryl had been chuckling down the phone for a good five minutes before she had finally found Sigmund and froze his feet in order to get an answer (thankfully, he was less dramatic than that obnoxious little gnome Monkeyshines, he had screamed when Piper had approached him). Now she was in the office and was receiving the pictures Darryl had sent her.

"That's not good." She said upon receiving the first picture, the teaching assistant sent to help her blanching and looking like he was about to pass out from seeing the picture of the man butchered within his own home.

"You think demonic like I do?" Darryl asked, and Piper considered the question.

It was certainly a brutal and nasty murder, no question, but was it necessarily a demonic one? Admittedly Darryl did have a point that the timings made it virtually impossible, but she could always be hopeful that this one was just going to be a human nutcase that Darryl could deal with. However, as she read the reports, then saw the body of the second victim, she began to get an unpleasant, nauseous feeling in her stomach. Five knife wounds, but that wouldn't…

"Darryl, the kill wounds. I'm fairly sure that if you joined them all together the right way, they could make a pentagram on their bodies." She hissed, feeling rather sick at the very thought of it, but it did stand to reason.

Five marks on each body, if you knew how to do it, and how a pentagram was actually drawn, it was fairly obvious in hindsight, but whoever the killer was, they were subtle, or at least trying to be by not actively cutting the pentagram into the bodies of their unfortunate victims. Though that was small comfort.

"Son of a bitch, I knew it." Darryl breathed, and Piper was beginning to get a very bad feeling about this.

The first two victims, well maybe the first one, he rang a bell, Piper could remember seeing him before, but she couldn't place where, all she knew was he looked familiar. The second one was a complete mystery to her though, who was he and why would some demon randomly kill him and that vaguely familiar looking guy? But when she saw the third victim…

"Darryl, isn't he that cop Phoebe sent to Timbuktu?" she asked, aghast, and she could hear the grimness in Darryl's tone.

"Yeah, Cortez. He deserved better than to be butchered in his own home." He growled, and Piper was forced to agree, same stab wounds, some demonic bastard essentially cutting a pentagram onto the bodies, this was a new level of evil even for them.

The fourth victim, he too looked slightly familiar, but she couldn't place him either, but where the hell had she seen him before?

"With Cortez dead, the brass will be wanting answers of some sort Piper, have you got anything for me?" Darryl pleaded just as the last image of the fifth victim came through, and this one she also recognised.

An Ling, the apprentice Zen Master who had succeeded her father, that was one of the first…

And then it hit her. She looked at the pictures, of poor An Ling, who she had befriended in the gulf left by Prue's death. Cortez, who had investigated Prue's death and had caught them summoning Grams and their mom in the attic. And now it suddenly started to click as to who the others were. The first one, Shane, flaming into the manor, the current body of the Source. Hitting the man, Donnie, the sexist, chauvinistic pig when she had become a Fury.

Oh god. Oh no.

"Darryl, I know what they all have in common. They're all linked to us, to the Charmed Ones," she breathed in terror, realising how many people were potentially in danger, her heart in her mouth as she realised the full extent of the implications, they were all linked to the Charmed Ones, in fact, to one Charmed One in particular, "they're all innocents we saved after Prue died, they're all innocents that we saved with Paige."

Darryl suppressed a groan after Piper hung up, she was already calling Chris back from the underworld in order to take her back to the manor so she could work with her sisters in order to end this before it got any further. He didn't want her to leave Magic School, but he knew there was no way he could persuade her to stay put when innocents were in danger. He just felt bad that she was being forced to drop everything, leave her son who was still the target of forces unknown, to go and deal with this.

At least he had a clue with which to move forward. Piper had told him about the next couple of potential victims, a woman named Claudia who they had saved from being baked by some demon and a woman named Susan who was a witch from another coven, that one he slightly remembered himself. But now how the hell did he put anyone on alert, or save the intended victims, when Sheridan would be breathing down his neck, demanding answers as to how he knew those specific people were in danger?

Either way, he needed to move fast. Picking up the cup of coffee he had made for himself, and the cup he had made for Henry, he headed down to lockup to see where his new partner had gotten to so that he could get on the road and hopefully prevent another demonic murder.

Prue cursed as the phone rang, she had been perusing the book, trying to find some sort of inspiration in either the Wyatt or the Mercer problem and didn't seem to be getting anywhere with either. Paige however was now restored to her usual glory and was also helping her, flipping through to see if they could maybe craft some sort of potion or something, or had even suggested a lipstick or something which Prue had to admit was a good idea. However, now disturbed from her brainstorm, she supposed she really should answer the phone as Paige didn't seem that inclined to do so.

"Hello?" she asked, and smirked, shooting an annoying smile at Paige as she realised who was on the other end of the phone, "oh hi Henry, good night last night?" she teased, and Paige looked outraged and scuttled over to her sister, trying to seize the phone out of her hand but Prue was too fast for her, grinning maddeningly as she moved out of her sisters reach.

"Um, she told you about that huh? Yeah, it was great," he admitted unabashedly, and Paige went scarlet, allowing Prue to cackle even more than she had been, miming kissing faces at her sister who then tried to orb behind her to steal the phone, but Prue danced out of her way, giving her sister a rude hand gesture in response, "so is this to check up on her make sure she's still into you?" she cajoled, while Paige gestured and orbed the phone out of Prue's hand, but in the split second where she celebrated her victory, Prue used her telekinesis to swipe the phone back in time to pick up what Henry said.

"Well, it's actually you I want to speak to." He said, and suddenly serious, Prue raised a hand and Paige did desist, cocking her head questioningly while Prue kept her in place with a finger raised in caution.

Was this to do with the Mercers? Had something happened, had she been rumbled? Had Sheridan investigated further, found out about them? Had someone spotted her, recognised her, called it in?

"Why, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly, and Paige came to Prue's side, looking concerned, so in response Prue put the handset on loudspeaker.

"Well that's just it, after I left Paige this morning, I was headed into work, and found this guy, maybe homeless or something, he was dirty, looked kind of drugged up or crazy," he began, and Prue wondered if perhaps a street prophet had come across his path, but that still wouldn't explain why he would need to talk to Prue, "and once I got the guy calmed down, he just kept saying over and over that he had to talk to you. I've brought him here to the station but the guy doesn't look good Prue, he looks a bit overwhelmed, and I gave him some water which he promptly threw back up. But the fact that he said he wanted to talk to you is what worries me, if you've been in a coma, how does he know who you are?"

That was the question, and both sisters exchanged darkly significant glances, mulling over the implications. How indeed? How could anyone know Prue was alive and back, let alone be in a position to be talked to?

"Did you get a name Henry?" Paige asked, and Henry made a noise of dissent.

"No, I tried, but it's like he couldn't remember it, I think he's improving but I don't want to spook him so I'm just waiting in the room outside the interview room, watching him from behind the glass. I tell you, we're lucky Sheridan isn't in today, if she got wind of this there'd be a hellstorm, she'd do her nut." He explained, and Prue had to admit, Sheridan would be likely to blow a gasket if she found out someone had been brought in asking questions about someone who was dead to the rest of the world, she was suspicious enough of Prue and Darryl as it was.

"Ok, so-" Prue began, just as they heard the door opening at Henry's end of the line.

"I brought you some coffee. Why are you-?" Darryl asked, and then the line went silent and a split second later the sound of two coffee cups landing on the floor and shattering.

The two sisters looked at each other in alarm, before Darryl's voice came back on.

"Henry, please tell me that that's one of the Halliwells you're on the phone to." Darryl whispered in a taut voice, sounding full of emotion, and sounding like he was about to cry.

"Yeah, Prue, why?" Henry asked, completely at sea, as Darryl clearly took the phone off him and took over the conversation.

"Prue, I know it's risky, but you need to come down here. This guy Henry brought in…Prue, it's Andy."

The current situation could be described as many things, however there was one thing it couldn't be described as, and that was good. It wasn't good at all.

After Chris' tipoff had revealed that there was an entire clan of Darklighters mobilising for reasons unknown, Leo had endeavoured to find out as much information as he could. That had led to him rendering himself invisible for quite some time and following whatever Darklighters he could, and he was taking tallys so he could try and work with the sisters in order to take down this highly dangerous, ever growing number of Darklighters.

Now however, the clan had moved into the real world, for reasons unknown, and all of them were here. And to his great annoyance, there was still no sign of Rennek, so where the hell was the evil son of a bitch?

And more importantly, what were all these Darklighters doing in the real world, what were they up to?

He did have one inkling that filled him with dread: until their return from the future and the return of Prue, today had originally been planned to be Wyatt's birthday party. That would be just what they needed, a Darklighter attack on the same day, and poison arrows to hand out with the party favours.

Not liking the implications of the whole thing, Leo orbed to the manor, though he couldn't quite shake the feeling that he was walking into a trap by even involving them in the first place.

Prue had somehow managed to get to the police station in a complete daze. After hearing what Darryl had said, her legs had nearly collapsed from under her, and only Paige's quick thinking had kept her from collapsing.

Andy was alive. It was impossible, Andy had been murdered by Rodriguez in one of their first big showdowns with evil, at the bidding of the demon Tempus. Since the death of Andy, Prue had never really allowed herself to move on emotionally from his death, she'd had a few significant others, like Jack, however none of them had lasted. Truth be told, she had never really wanted to move on from Andy, despite their ups and downs, the two of them had known decades ago that they were made for each other, only for destiny to intervene and rip away from her.

And god knows it had been hard on him when she had joined him in the afterlife. Unable to cope with the loss of her life, with the prophecy binding her to the Power of Three, unable to accept and move on from what had happened, she had lashed out, angry, bitter and generally unstable. As the love of her life, and the one who had most recently died, Andy had been the one who had borne the brunt of her anger, her impotence, her self-hatred and denial, and it had been a long, drawn out struggle there was no denying that. However, just as she had finally began to cope with the constant tearing she felt from the damn prophecy, she had been whipped to the future, uniting with the future version of herself to make her both the present and future version, and then she had been cast through time before coming back to the present.

And now, Andy was back, suddenly, inexplicably. Paige had offered to orb her to the station as she was clearly still thrown off by Andy's sudden reappearance, however Prue felt it was best to keep as much distance from the station as possible for the rest of the family, due to Sheridan. Accepting her argument, but insisting she try and hide her identity, Paige had kitted her out then lent Prue her car in order to get her to the station. And now dressed in a wide summer hat with a scarf wrapped round her head and dark glasses on, she entered the station and headed to meet with Darryl.

"Prue, thanks for coming. Nice get up." Darryl said by way of greeting, and she ripped off the sunglasses in order to send him an effective glare while Henry stood at the one way window, looking through at Andy who was still sitting in the interview room beyond.

"Is it really him?" she breathed, looking at him through the glass, and didn't at all like the curious look that Henry was giving them both.

"Ok, are either of you going to explain how exactly you know this guy, and how he was ambling around looking like he'd been mugged?" he asked, and Prue exchanged the briefest of glances with Darryl, this wasn't going to be easy.

Just this once, she actually wished she had Piper's freezing power, then she could freeze Henry and have the conversation she sorely needed to have with Darryl, because either way, they were going to have to tell him something, but as he was just starting to date to Paige and he was already involved in her sudden resurrection, she really didn't want to clue him too much into anything potentially magic that could blow back on them. Especially not with Sheridan waiting in the wings.

But what to actually tell him?

"Henry, we know you want answers, but we need to speak to him first before we can find them out. Could you give me and Prue a minute?" Darryl asked, and while Henry did look at them quizzically, he did leave the room, finally allowing them to have their conversation.

"Ok, first question, is he alright?" Prue asked worriedly, and Darryl pursed his lips, but did nod.

"As far as I can see. I didn't want to risk someone checking him up and recognising him, or risk Sheridan finding out that someone else in your vicinity has just made a miraculous return from the dead. Prue, if she gets wind of this…" he warned, and there was something in his voice that gave her pause.

She turned slowly to look at Darryl, her face worried.

"Darryl, how much trouble are we in with her?" she asked nervously, and he sighed, looking furtively about the room, and the fact that he looked so concerned in a room where they were totally alone didn't exactly fill her with joy, as that translated to: one hell of a lot.

"She's obsessive Prue, and doesn't have any life outside the job. And frankly, she's a little too curious about your sudden reappearance, if she gets wind of Andy being back too we're all in for it." He told her grimly, and she groaned, closing her eyes in annoyance.

"And even if I take down the Mercers?" she asked, and he looked at her consolingly.

"Chances are she'll just come after you harder than before. I'm sorry Prue, I thought I could control her but she's too stubborn." He lamented, and she patted his arm.

"It's not your fault Darryl, you've already done more than enough for us, for me in particular. Alright, we just need to make sure she doesn't find out about Andy, and for us to do that I need to make sure that it actually is Andy." She said, and he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Prue, how he looks, did he-?" he asked, sounding sick, and she nodded grimly.

"By the looks of things yeah Darryl, he came back exactly where we left him." She admitted, sounding faintly sick herself, at least the Elders in the future had had the decency to take her out of her coffin before they resurrected her, poor Andy, especially by the looks of him, returned to life exactly where he had been and had been left to fight his way out of the coffin and six feet of earth before returning to the land of the living.

Steeling herself, she left the room and left a faintly queasy looking Darryl inside, then passed Henry with a nod before entering the room where Andy was sitting. As she closed the door behind her, he looked up, his eyes nearly returned to normal though still slightly widened due to all this new light pouring in after five years in the ground, and for a second she feared he didn't recognise her.

And then, as his eyes adjusted to the light she had allowed into the room behind her, he realised who she was and his face broken into an expression of relieved joy, casting back the chair he was sitting on and letting it crash to the floor before rushing to her, wrapping his arms around her and twirling her in delight.

"Andy!" Prue breathed, totally ignoring the smell of blood that was wafting off him (from his fingernails) and the overpowering smell of dirt as she laid a hand on his cheek, savouring the look of him.

It was Andy, she could feel it in her heart. Yes she still had all sorts of tests to perform, but she could feel it in her heart, her soul, her bones, this was her Andy, the one tragically taken from her just as they had finally figured out to stop being so stupid about being with each other, the Andy taken from her by Rodriguez, the Andy who had consoled, comforted and tolerated her in the afterlife.

"Prue…nice look, the blonde suits you." He said with a grin, clearly having recovered his mental facilities to a suitable point again, and she smiled ruefully.

"Well I have to admit, I wasn't sold on it at first but I do kind of rock it now, it's grown on me." She admitted, taking his hand and sitting him down at the table, before sitting opposite him.

She knew that no matter what was said between them, Darryl, despite watching from the observation room, would say nothing. And besides, he was enough of a gentleman that he would turn his back if things got tender.

She savoured every minute of staring at him before wrapping his hand in hers on the tabletop.

"Ok, I know you probably don't know, but I have to ask…how are you back?" she asked in a whisper, and Andy shrugged, though didn't let go of her hand.

"I have no idea Prue, and that's the truth. I was heading to meet your Grams and mom for our weekly cribbage game," he explained, and she smiled, Grams had always insisted that no matter how everyone was enjoying their afterlife, they would all meet once a week to play cribbage and gossip, Grams, mom, aunt Gail, Prue and Andy, "by the way, it's not been as fun since you left, just the occasional bit of Grams casting up your aunt Gail trying to sell your powers to that demon, and then all of a sudden, I'm…awake, gasping for air, in this black box, I could hardly move, I…" he explained, tailing off, and she squeezed his hand.

He had awoken in his coffin. He would then have had to struggle out of that, then climb through the dirt to erupt into the daylight, which also meant there was going to be a very alarmed groundskeeper at the cemetery this morning.

"Oh my god Andy." She whispered softly, and he shrugged.

"It wasn't easy, I can tell you that. I take it you didn't have to deal with that?" he asked glumly, and she shook her head.

"No, the Elders unearthed my body in the future, they were even decent enough to open to the casket." She explained, and he grinned.

"Good of them. Mind you, whoever or whatever brought me back must have had something of a conscience, the coffin was unlocked, helped me get out easier." He told her, and while this didn't exactly fill her with joy, she did thank god for small miracles.

But that led her back to her main problem. Andy was a mortal, and hence did not resurrect himself. Truth be told, even in their line of work, her resurrection was enough of an aberration, let alone the resurrection of her true love all of a sudden coming out of nowhere. Which meant there was something else at play here, something else that they were all missing, someone brought him back, but who and why, were harder to answer.

Smiling sadly, and willing herself not to trust every instinct in her body that this was the real Andy, that this was the man she loved, she looked at him dead in the eye.

"Andy, I know this is hard for you to grasp, it is for me as well," she began, but he shot her a look, and she didn't know quite how to identify it, was it resentful, angry, or just accepting?

"Yeah but your life is more geared towards this remember, being a witch and all. Not to mention you vanished three months ago without so much as a goodbye, and you can cope better with all of this than I can." He said to her, and she wasn't sure she liked his tone, though was willing to let it stand, after all, he had just come back from the bed.

"Well it's not like I had a lot of choice in the matter, I vanished because I was still bound to my sisters because of the prophecy so when they went to the future to save Chris, I was taken along for the ride and became amalgamated with future me. Admittedly, it took me a while to come to terms with both versions of me, not going to lie. And I have missed you." She said softly, and he smiled slightly, which she counted as a win.

"I've missed you too. I'm just a bit, annoyed that you vanished without so much as a goodbye but I know that's not your fault. How you enjoying being back?" he asked, and she shrugged, though did smile.

"It has it's own set of challenges. Anyway, before we go any further, I need to find out if you're, you know, you, and not some harbinger of a zombie apocalypse…though admittedly, the way our lucks going recently, it would surprise me if you were." She admitted drily, and he sniggered in amusement.

"Not all sunshine and roses then?" he challenged, and she smirked.

"Let's just say it isn't all sunshine and roses. So, any overriding compulsion to eat my flesh?" she asked, suddenly all business, and he gave her a sly grin.

"I have an overriding compulsion to do something with you, it's not eat you though." He told her, and she gave a surprised laugh, feeling herself going red, and feeling sorry for poor Darryl in the observation room.

"Um, you realise Darryl is in the other room?" she asked pointedly, and he did at least suddenly go white and manage to look embarrassed.

"Heh, sorry man!" he called through, and Darryl's voice came over the intercom.

"I have stuck my fingers in my ears and have no idea what you just said quite frankly, and I'd rather keep it that way." He said with as much dignity as he could muster.

"Sorry Darryl. Alright let me think…" Prue said to herself and got to work.

For half an hour, Prue did all she could think of, asked questions of Andy, did rituals, cast spells, but by the end of it all, she was forced to confirm that as far as she could see, Andy really was Andy, back and in the flesh.

But as soon as she had that thought flood her with joy and relief, she was struck by another thought. Andy was back, but how long for? The angels of death had seen fit to take him from her once before, and if his resurrection hadn't been done properly, there was no way that Andy would be allowed to continue his life here. What if she couldn't protect him? What if Andy was killed all over again, taken from her, ripped out of the life that he was robbed of the first time? And selfish though it sounded, what if his being back had an affect on her, on her resurrection? What if it would up being the two of them, targets for whatever foul force was out there trying to take them all down?

Behind her, the astral form of Barbas grinned and vanished.

"Give me a minute." She said kindly to him, motioning to Darryl through the glass and the two of them met outside, and Henry came over, looking concerned.

"Well?" Darryl asked anxiously, and she sighed.

"Well, as far as I an find, he is Andy, I asked him questions only he would know the answer to, tested him," she said, exchanging a significant look with Darryl which Henry thankfully missed, "and I think it's him, just a little spaced out." She explained, and Henry looked at them curiously.

"Ok, but where's he been, why did you two look so rattled when I brought him in? Hell, hang on." He said, as his phone rang, and the other two breathed a sigh of relief, what the hell did they tell Henry about this?

The two of them had a silent conversation with their eyes, and Prue was left wondering just how much she should actually tell him when Henry abruptly went white, and her thoughts that they had literally been saved by the bell went flying out the window as he turned to them.

"That was Sheridan, she's here!" he hissed, and both Prue and Darryl's stomach collapsed as they looked at each other in terror.

"What's she doing here, she's meant to be at City Hall all day!" Darryl hissed, and Henry hissed, and while he didn't know the full reasons that they didn't want Sheridan finding out about Andy he knew enough because she would tear him a new one for getting Prue to come to the station in the first place.

"She said they finished early, and that you need help with those murders?" Henry asked, barring the door to the interview room with his shoulder, as if that would help.

"What do we do?" Prue hissed in a panic, and Darryl pondered before clicking his fingers.

"I can take him home, the kids are at the grandparents in Ohio, it's just Sheila in the house, so if you can-" he said leadingly to Prue, who nodded.

"Of course, sure. Andy, come on, we're going!" she called into the other room, and he came out looking confused.

Henry then sent them a funny look.

"Ok, I get that you don't particularly want her to find out as it'll blow back on all of us but…" he began, but Prue cut him off.

"I know it's strange Henry, and I know you want answers. Please, you have to trust me." She pleaded, and Henry did reluctantly nod, though she could tell his patience with not being told everything was wearing very thin.

"Ok, but I need to know what's going on." He insisted, and Darryl clapped his shoulder.

"I know buddy, but in this particular instance, the less you know the better I swear. Alright Prue, disguise back on? Let's go." He said as Prue finished reassembling her disguise, and Andy shot her an amused look as he saw the getup she was in.

"Nice disguise." He chuckled, and she elbowed him in annoyance, as Henry checked the coast was clear.

"Ok, go, I'll hold her off, you owe me big time." He warned, heading out to meet Sheridan, and Darryl nodded.

"Damn right we do. Thanks man." He said, leading Prue and Andy away in the opposite direction, away from the busy noises of the station and into one of the fire exits.

"Thank you for doing this Darryl. Like I say, I think Andy is Andy, the question is who brought him back, how and why." Prue said as they rushed down the steps, Darryl clearly didn't put it past Sheridan to follow them down here if Henry failed to distract her.

"So I'm still me?" Andy asked, breathing a little heavy as they ran down the stairs, he supposed being dead the better part of six years was having a hell of an effect on his lung capacity.

"As far as I can see. Um, does Sheila know about me?" Prue asked, as Darryl breathed a sigh of relief as they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, opening the fire door.

"Yeah I told her. Not told her about Andy yet though, that can be a surprise, I'll call her once I deal with Sheridan." He said in distaste, and Prue suddenly realised just how much trouble they were in.

Even if she got her life back, she was still never going to get rid of Sheridan.

"Sheridan being?" Andy asked, as Prue stuffed him into Paige's car.

"Your replacement essentially, now keep your head down in case anyone notices you." She ordered, thankful that they hadn't see anyone in the parking lot during their escape, and as she came round to her side of the car, Darryl gave her a quick hug.

"Look after him Prue, and Sheila too. Let me know if you need anything." He told her, and she patted his arm kindly.

"What I need is for you to get rid of your partner for when this is all over." She told him sadly, climbing into the car and as she drove off, he let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding.

Yeah, getting rid of Sheridan was going to be difficult, and now Henry was going to start asking questions too. While he was delighted that Andy was back, the manner of it all was unsettling, and even Prue had been thrown for six. And now he was entrusting his wife to look after his resurrected former partner when he could potentially be dangerous, and what was just as bad, both his new partners were starting to become ever more suspicious of him and Prue, and knowing Sheridan, the Halliwells in general. God help them if she started looking too closely into their files.

Steeling himself, he headed back inside to face the music. The girls had their own threats and problems, and his was Sheridan. He only hoped he could deal with her himself because if things went the way he thought they could, they would all be for it.

Sheridan looked suspiciously at both Darryl and Henry. Having finished her meeting early, she had returned to find both of them curiously absent, though apparently Henry had brought in some homeless guy this morning that had made Darryl completely stop his investigation into multiple murders in order to be with Henry, which was bizarre in and of itself. There had also been a strange woman who had gone straight into the interview room as well. That made the whole thing even stranger. Curious, she had pulled the cctv footage from the carpark, and had seen a green beetle arrive with said strange woman inside it. Having been struck by a curious thought, she had run the plates and had discovered that the car actually belonged to Paige Matthews.

This just made her all the more frustrated. Darryl's cover story for Prue's sudden reappearance had been full of holes, however she had been willing to put that aside as she had a good chance of delivering the entire Mercer crime family. But as time went on, more and more strange things seemed to happen around that family, and here was yet another instance of that family being up to something. When she had started working with Prue, she had pulled all of the files on the Halliwells, finding them involved in far too many reports, and with mysterious deaths, not least the ones of Prue herself and of Phoebe's ex husband Cole Turner. It was all so weird, especially when she questioned Darryl about them. And his rise to Lieutenant was also coincidentally linked somehow with the Halliwells. Did they have something on him? Were they in cahoots?

And even more strangely, she had checked what Darryl had gone in regards to the murder cases, and found out that he had sent a fax to a place that didn't even exist, a number that wasn't recognised. What the hell was going on there?

Whatever it was, she didn't like it, not one little bit. If Prue delivered the Mercers, then so be it. But why would Prue, as she assumed that was who the woman who had come in Paige's car was, risk everything in order to come to the station? Why would Darryl suddenly stop working to check some homeless guy out that Henry had brought in? Why were the entire Halliwell family registered as persons of interest in so many cases? Why had so many people died in their home, not withstanding Inspector Trudeau who had been a boyfriend of Prue, the apparent death of Prue herself, a prominent doctor who had virtually no connection to the family other than being murdered on the same day as Prue had apparently been killed? Why were there so many disappearances linked to the Halliwells too, like Jeremy Burns, Cole Turner?

None of this made sense.

But she was determined to make sure that by the end of all this, it did.

The ruined, decrepit, hate filled old man that was Gerard Argent felt a rush of smug, triumphant satisfaction flood his body as Eventide delivered their report. At long last, they had found it. They had finally found it.

The Nexus of the All.

"You're sure of this?" Pratt asked, a smug smile on his face and the armoured leader of the Twilight Legion nodded.

"Yes my Emperor. It's the only place lighting up on our scans now, it's the only remaining bastion of magic left. I recommend that we hit it at once." Eventide suggested, and Pratt smirked as he got to his feet.

"Agreed my general. It is time we end this. Have our entire military converge on that site. It's time we ended this once and for all." He hissed, malicious bloodthirst kindling in his eyes.

Eventide inclined their head and swept from the room and Gerard leaned back in his chair, for the first time in decades unbothered by the apparatus sustaining his life.

"It's time Cal. To wipe them out…all of them."

Sheila looked at Andy, a little perplexed by everything that Prue had told her. So now he had came back from the dead as well, and because of Sheridan, she was now expected to watch him, well that was all well and good but this had never been part of the job description.

What did she even say to a guy who had been dead for six years?

"Um, Andy, you hungry?" she asked, and Andy's face broke into a grin of delight.

"Starving!"

It turned out offering him food had not been a good idea. As a half hour later, Andy had cleaned out two entire boxes of pop tarts meant for the boys, and for Darryl.

Darryl so owed her a foot rub for this, and the girls owed her a night out. However, to her relief, Andy did seem normal, just extremely hungry.

Just a pity he was now eating her out of house and home. Smiling in amusement despite it all, she went to see what else she could scrounge for him to eat.

Leo orbed into the manor foyer at the bottom of the stairs, and surprised Phoebe who had just came in the door.

"Hi, what are you doing home in the middle of the day?" he asked curiously, and she shrugged.

"Well when I got the call from Paige I thought it might be a good idea to work from home for the rest of the day. Besides, Elise isn't in so there's no one to stop me." She said brightly, and he looked at her sceptically.

"Elise isn't in? That's not like her." He pointed out, and she nodded, looking thoughtful.

"Well I thought that too, but she comes in in the morning, then disappears for lunch, then fails to come back. Either that or she's in most of the day then disappears earlier than she usually would for what we're assuming is dinner. We think she's got a man." She explained, and Leo relaxed a little, though truth be told it wouldn't be the first time someone's tried to get to the family through their extended network.

Paige then came through from the kitchen, smiling in greeting.

"Hi Leo. Prue isn't here, she got a call from Henry. She had to go to the station." She explained, and Leo frowned.

"Something to do with the Mercers?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"No, that's too simple. Apparently, Andy's back." She told them, and Phoebe's eyes widened in shock.

"Andy? How?" she spluttered, and Paige shrugged, looking a little less unsettled than Phoebe but then again, she hadn't known Andy, just been given the info about him by her sisters.

"No idea, she was away to check to make sure it was really him." She told them, just as Prue herself walked through the door, looking worried.

"Uh oh, that doesn't look good. Are you ok honey?" Phoebe asked her sister, who nodded, not quite meeting Phoebe's eyes though as she did so.

"Yeah, I mean as far as I can tell, it is Andy, I just can't figure out who would bring him back, how or why. Sheila's watching him, I'm going to power up some crystals for her to use in case he turns out not to be, you know, really him." She said, sounding uncomfortable, and Phoebe patted her sisters hand before Prue turned to Leo.

"What's up Leo?" she asked, and he scowled darkly.

"The Darklighters that Chris told me about, I've been tracking them. They're here, now, in the city, a whole clan of them. I was hoping for some backup if you guys are free?" he asked, and Prue nodded.

"Yeah, once I charge a crystal for Sheila to use on Andy in case he isn't a benevolent resurrection. Do you have any ideas Leo? I mean don't get me wrong, I'm delighted that he's back, but it's just so strange, people don't just resurrect out of nowhere." She pointed out, and he had to admit, this did have a slight odour to it, the whole situation did.

"Yeah, it does seem a bit strange I have to say. Mortals don't just resurrect out of nowhere, hell, even witches can't resurrect out of nowhere, you were unique. Did you test him, make sure he really was Andy?" he asked, and she nodded.

"As much as I could in the police station yeah. As far as I can see he really is him, but I don't know if there's more tests I can carry out, I was going to ask Chris to see if he has any more, you know, future ones, just to be on the safe side. Darryl and Sheila are quite happy to take him, but until we know where he came from, and how he came back, I'm not too happy leaving him there without one of us to protect them." She explained, and Paige tapped her chin in thought.

"Well it would be easy enough to enchant something to act as an alarm system should anything happen to him. But if Andy's back, where does that leave you honey?" she asked, looking at her older sister, and Prue looked helplessly at her little sister, shrugging as she did so.

"I really don't know Paige. If it's Andy, I mean really Andy and he's back, brilliant, but I don't know, I don't want to get my hopes up, and besides, how the hell do we explain his sudden resurrection? And I, well I…" she said, sounding a little upset, and Phoebe wrapped her arm around Prue's shoulders.

"And if it is him, you don't want to get your hopes up that you can maybe pick up where you left off, and if it isn't, you don't want to get hurt regardless by getting your hopes up." She said kindly, and Prue nodded.

"Yeah, exactly. Anyway Leo," she sniffed, blinking away the tears in her eyes and looking at her brother in law, "you were telling us about those Darklighters?"

Leo looked at her consolingly before pressing ahead with the reason for his visit.

"The clan of Darklighters that Chris told me about have surfaced. There's still no sign of Rennek, unfortunately, but an entire clan of them, marshalling near here can't be good. So I'm thinking if we go in, hit them and stop them before they get any further with whatever they're planning." He said, and Paige looked at him worriedly.

"It sounds like a plan Leo, but an entire clan of Darklighters when even if we have all six of us go, four of us are in deadly trouble if we get hit by an arrow, against an entire clan? It reeks of a trap." She pointed out, and he did have to admit, that did seem like a potential outcome.

"And like Paige says, her, you, Chris and even Piper at the moment are screwed if we get into it and get into too much trouble dealing with them all." Phoebe added, though Prue however looked thoughtful, clearly mulling over the possibilities.

"Well, if it is a trap and we go in knowing about it, we can make it work to our advantage. And like Leo says, if there is an entire clan nearby we'll need to do something about them anyway, and I'd rather hit them before they come here and hit us where we could be caught off guard, and we can have the element of surprise. Where exactly are they Leo?" she asked, but before she could get an answer, Chris orbed in with Piper, who looked surprised but relieved to see everyone was all here already.

"Oh, already got a war council going on. Good, we have a problem." She said without preamble, and Phoebe waved her hand.

"We already know about Andy being back." She told her, and Piper's jaw fell.

"Andy's back? How?" she asked Prue, who shrugged, looking just as clueless as before.

"We have no idea, understandably, we're a little suspicious. Sheila's watching him. Actually scrappy, I was going to ask you if you could check him over, you might be able to think of more tests than I can?" she asked her nephew, and looking concerned, Chris nodded.

"Yeah sure, but how the hell could he come back? Obviously someone's brought him back, but why?" he asked, mostly to himself.

"Could it be because Prue came back?" Phoebe asked, and after a brief look with his father, Chris shook his head.

"Shouldn't be, the way Neena changed the timeline meant that everything that happened till the day your powers started to act up was exactly the same. And even then, Andy died, what, four, five years ago? That was before Prue even died, so should still be the same regardless. Whoever brought him back, whatever their reason, we need to find them out, now, god knows what they might have brought back if it isn't the real Andy." He said, and Prue sent him a grateful look.

"Thanks scrappy, if you check him you an at least make sure that Sheila and Darryl are safe. And speaking of, Piper's right, we do have another problem. Sheridan." Prue said, and a small ripple of fear seemed to pass over the family.

"How bad is it?" Piper asked worriedly, and Prue sent her a glum look

"Bad enough that Darryl is seriously worried, and so am I. She's a rottweiler, and she's got no life outside her job either which makes it even worse. I think she's going to come after us. Getting rid of Mercer might buy us some time, but I wouldn't pin all our hopes on that." She told them grimly, and the four sisters looked especially worried.

It was small wonder why. It was exposure that had led to Prue's death, and every time they had had a brush with exposure it had nearly cost them everything, and had also sometimes cost people their lives. If Sheridan came after them as religiously as they seemed to believe she would, it wouldn't just be the whole family in danger but also Darryl and Sheila, along with everyone else who came into her crossfire.

But that was a problem for later.

"While also a very serious problem, that isn't why I'm here. Darryl called me this morning, there were several murders last night, all with the same MO. Five stab wounds. Unfortunately for us, when joined up with all the blood he causes when he kills them, our guy forms a pentagram." She said with mock cheer, and they all groaned

"So a demonic killing spree. That's all we need. Who's he killing?" Phoebe asked, and Piper looked at her sister grimly before taking Paige's hand in her own.

"Whoever this demon is, he's killing our innocents. Specifically, all the innocents we saved with Paige." She told them regretfully, and Paige looked at her in horror.

"Our innocents?" she gasped, and her sisters and Leo also shared her look of alarm.

"Yeah, mom had me check another couple, both dead, we tipped off the police. But that's two more lives down, and we don't have a lot of time to get to the next one." Chris explained, and Paige looked at them, aghast.

"Why are they killing our innocents?" she asked in a horrified whisper, and Piper gnawed her lip.

"I don't know sweetie, but if my list is right, we don't have long to find the next victim. Chris orbed to check on that magician that Phoebe saved, Stan Provazolli, and fortunately we were able to tip off the police about him too, he's been saved and he's safely at the police station for now, but the next potential victim is, well Paige, it's Glen." She said darkly, and Paige's eyes widened in horror.

"We need to save him!" she cried, and Piper nodded.

"That's the plan. Alright, Chris, you go and test Andy and power up the crystals, just to be on the safe side. We'll go to check on Glen and get him somewhere safe, and then maybe check our next innocents as well, whoever this demon is, they have damn good information, they've been working through every innocent we ever protected since Paige became a witch, and that's a lot of innocents. So we go, save Glen, then we can see to our other innocents." She said, taking charge, and Prue nodded in agreement.

"Good, and if we have time, we can help Leo with his Darklighter problem." She said, and Piper looked at her in confusion.

"Darklighter problem?"

"We'll explain in the car, let's go!" Phoebe urged as the four Charmed Ones and Leo headed for the door, leaving Chris standing in the manor mulling it all over.

Andy's sudden resurrection did not sit well with him at all, it made no sense. Whoever had brought him back had done so for a reason, and he couldn't imagine that reason just being to cheer Prue up. No, there was more to this. Furthermore, there was now some random demon slaughtering all the innocents Paige had ever had a hand in saving, and that too filled him with a sense of dread. Something wasn't right here, not right at all.

Figuring that if things were about to get very messy around here he could at least protect Darryl and Sheila, he headed upstairs to the attic to charge the crystals, while the delighted astral form of Barbas prepared himself for the final push before following the sisters.

The four sisters hurtled up the stairs, Leo close on their heels as Paige led them to the apartment that Glen shared with his wife Jessica, their ears straining for any sign of life within the apartment. Prue closed her eyes as they reached the door, and a second later, the door flew open, undone by her rapidly evolving skill in psychokinesis, a derivative of her usual telekinesis. They surged into the apartment, only to come to a stop behind Paige as they watched Glen collapse to the floor, blood pouring from his chest as he fell.

"GLEN!" Paige screamed in horror, attempting to run forward, but her sisters restrained her as they had seen Glen's attacker.

The demon stood, a sadistic smile on his face, his one yellow, reptilian eye glowing with malice, his green skin encroaching ever so slightly over the remaining human aspect of his face. His red hair was receding from the side, turning into more green scales, and his fingers were becoming clawed, all of which were dripping with a glinting, mucus like venom. And in one hand, he had the blood stained athame that he had just used on Glen.

"Hello ladies, late to the party I see." He hissed in a soft, malicious voice, and Prue glared.

"Well, we might be late but we can certainly make an entrance!" she spat, and gestured, and the demon was suddenly blown across the room, yelling in surprise as he was blasted away with such fury.

As Prue and Piper closed on the demon, both of their hands raised, Paige, Phoebe and Leo rushed to Glen's side, tears streaming down her face as she rushed to her best friend's side in a panic. However, the blood loss, combined with the glassy, vacant look on Glen's face left Leo in no illusions as to what awaited them, but for Paige's sake, he had to at least try. While Paige cradled Glen's head in her lap, Phoebe attempted CPR, trying to get some glimmer of a heartbeat back while Leo tried to heal Glen's wounds. However he had no response, and regretfully, hating himself, he had to lean back and shake his head at Phoebe, who desisted and looked sorrowfully at Paige, who gave a scream of enraged, heartbroken denial before Phoebe wrapped her in a hug.

Across the room, despite the ferocity that Prue had thrown him with, the demon suddenly magically rose to his feet, stopping the eldest Charmed Ones charge. Smiling, he threw an energy ball right at Piper, which with a gesture Prue deflected back towards him, while Piper took advantage to blast him right in the face. Screaming in pain, he clutched at the wound, throwing a fireball at the two witches which Piper stumbled out of the way of while Prue threw herself out of the way in order to avoid. The demon, still snarling in rage, leapt towards Piper, right into her trap. With a small gesture, much akin to the one she used to freeze, she slowed down his momentum, and his eyes widened in horror as she dodged his attack due to her slowing him down, and his face turned to one of fury before she blasted him in the side, sending him crashing with a scream into the wall. Furious now, the demon hurled a new blue white fireball at them, rippling with lilac flames, and with a significant glance signifying that this new power of his couldn't be good, the two sisters dropped to the deck, and the attack smashed through the window, hurtling out into thin air. The demon smirked, before a bolt of lightning crashed into him, pinning him against the wall as Leo, Paige and Phoebe then joined the fight. Sneering in fury at them, he surveyed his odds before shimmering out of the apartment, leaving them standing amidst the carnage caused by their fight and by Glen's murder.

"Where did we go, we need to find him!" Paige spat, but Prue took her head in her hands and fixed her green, intense eyes onto her sister's tear flooded brown ones.

"We will find him honey, and we will vanquish the evil bastard, I promise you that. But we can't be found here, especially in this mess, not with Sheridan on our tails. Ok? We will find that demon, and we will vanquish the son of a bitch for what he has done to our innocents, and to Glen, but for now, we need to go. Understand?" she asked, her tone firm but compassionate, and Paige nodded, her face still streaked with tears.

"Yes." She sniffed, and Piper wrapped her in a hug, before looking at Phoebe.

"Phoebe, no one, Sheridan especially, can't know we've been here." She said, rocking Paige softly, and Phoebe nodded, while Piper hushed into Paige's ear, stroking her hair, "this isn't your fault honey, you know it isn't." she whispered.

"Let the cause of objection become but a dream

As I cause the scene to become unseen!"

Phoebe's spell cleaned up the detritus of the battle, including the blood that Phoebe, Paige and Leo had managed to get on them in trying to save Glen's life, however it left Glen's body lying in a pool of his own blood, strangely the spell didn't affect that, perhaps to help cover them, or perhaps as a dark legacy of the murder that had happened at the hands of the supernatural. Phoebe looked sickened with herself, while Paige looked helplessly at Piper.

"What do we tell Jessica? They were trying to have a baby!" she sobbed, and Piper's heart broke for the woman who had just lost her husband, and for her baby sister.

"This isn't fair sweetie, I know. But we will get him." She vowed darkly, fury roiling in her eyes, and to that end, Prue swept to her, her face the definition of a tempest.

"Who's the next victim on the list Piper?" she bit out, and Piper ran it through her head before her heart dropped like a stone.

"It's…it's Tyler." She gasped, and the five members of the family exchanged a dark look.

Tyler was the young Firestarter and later Resistance leader who had been so vital in helping Chris over the years in the future, and like hell were they going to let that demon kill him too.

"We're putting that demonic son of a bitch down. Now." Prue hissed, and the five of them traipsed out of the apartment, bound for the car, wondering if it was worth the risk of orbing.

They had startled the demon, Prue was fairly sure of that. But Piper had also outwitted him, wounded him, he wouldn't be in a hurry to get to his next location, especially when out of the list Tyler was the one so far with the most dangerous active power. It was unlikely that he would be in such a hurry to try and kill Tyler so soon after being wounded, but you never knew…

"Drive fast Phoebe. I'll let Darryl know what happened." Prue said as Phoebe kicked Piper's car (her own was too small to properly accommodate them all, especially with Piper being pregnant, which was the reason she wasn't driving her own car anyway), into gear, pulling into traffic and heading towards Tyler's home.

The car ride was silent as they mused over their failure.

Prue was sitting beside Paige, rubbing her back and stroking her alternately, her eyes blazing in fury as to what had happened. Several innocents murdered by that demon, and to what end? What purpose was it serving? And she and Piper had given him their best shot, and he had been wounded yes, but it was clear that he was a formidable opponent, perhaps a new age Belthazor, which was the last thing they needed. And as she looked at her sister, she felt the stirrings of fear, the stirrings that she had been trying to brutally suppress ever since her resurrection. The arrival of Belthazor in their lives had been the beginning of the end of her life, and in the end, while it hadn't been Cole, it had been an immensely powerful demon who had then murdered her. So far, despite the troubles, the fact that she could die again hadn't bothered her per se, she had known it was a possibility, but in these last sorts of demons of the week, it hadn't seemed like that much of an issue. This guy, he was different. And now, looking at Paige as she rested her head on Piper's shoulder, still crying softly, she couldn't help but wonder if this was her fault. She was the one who had come back, she was the one who had broken the natural order, the fact that it hadn't been her who had done the deed in the first place was immaterial. Was Glen dead, were they all dead, as part of some, insidious natural way of magic rewriting the balance of the world? And before the timeline change, Paige had never been able to fully accept her destiny as a Charmed One, not because of anything she had done or hadn't done, but because of Prue and her inability to move on. Was she the reason Glen was dead? Was she hampering Paige somehow, robbing her of her birth right? If Prue hadn't been back, would Paige have been able to get there in time to save him? And if she wasn't so terrified of dying again, of being murdered and having her life cut short once again, would she be better off? Would she have been able to finish that demon herself? Was her fear of dying again holding her back, and hence endangering all of them?

Piper held her sobbing sister to her as Phoebe just managed to avoid running a red light. This was her fault. It had taken her a while to piece together the list of their former innocents, far longer than it should have done. She had started to piece together the chain of attack, but as her horror had grown, so too had her inability to think, to plan ahead, to remember the innocents in the order they were attacked. It was only when Chris had returned and helped her organise her thoughts had she realised the danger that Glen, that all their former innocents were in. She had failed her sister, and now an innocent was dead. And if together, even the four of them couldn't stop one lousy demon murdering their innocents, what chance did they have? How could they save Wyatt, prevent that god-awful future from coming about if they couldn't save their innocents?

Phoebe exchanged a dark look with Leo as she drove them towards Tyler's house. Thankfully, ever since their encounter with them, Piper had kept contact with him, essentially acting as a magical godmother to him, so finding him wasn't an issue, it was finding him in time. And saving him from that demon, that was now their main objective. That half reptile, half human demon. A sense of foreboding filled her stomach as she mulled over her thoughts. He might as well be another Belthazor. A half-human demon, sent to bedevil the Charmed Ones and anyone who got into his path, just like Cole had been. What if this was like Cole all over again, sucking them all in until the best time to shaft them? What if this further emboldened Cole? Why did everything in her life lead back to Cole, was she doomed to follow the same pattern over and over again? Their lives were a seemingly endless struggle with darkness, and at times she had been consumed by it, what if that happened again? What if Cole got to her, made her follow him down that same dark path again as he had done once before? What if she chose that path willingly, regardless of Cole or even this new threat, because at her core, she carried the same darkness as she was evil herself? What if she wound up being the thing that inadvertently hurt and twisted Wyatt into becoming that despot in the future?

Paige could hardly believe it. Glen had been her best friend, and more often than not, more than that, all her life. And now he was dead, murdered in his own home, yet another casualty in their endless war with evil, yet more collateral damage. And she had been utterly unable to prevent it. What was the use in being a witch if she couldn't save a life that mattered to her? What was the use in being a Charmed One even? She was meant to be one of the strongest witches in the world, yet she had been totally unable to save Glen. This was her fault, she had failed. Neena had gotten it wrong, despite changing the prophecy, all four of them couldn't exist at the same time, she was the replacement, not a real member of the all powerful Charmed Ones. That was why she had been unable to save Glen. She wasn't needed, and no matter what her sisters said, and she wasn't needed for the Power of Four. That was all on Prue, she was the vital one, the returned hero, the one against whom Paige could never hope to compare. And maybe, maybe it was also slightly Prue's fault that Glen was dead, not just Paige's. Yeah she loved her big sister and was delighted with the chance to get to know her, but it was her resurrection that had caused all this. And now, Paige was swept aside and her best friend was dead, all because of Prue. Paige was weak, and Prue was strong, and now on top of it all, the love of Prue's life had also returned, whereas the closest thing she had ever had was now lying dead in his apartment, widowing his wife. This was all her fault, why couldn't she be more like Prue, or why did there have to be a Prue at all, she was nothing compared to him, Prue had come back and the whole thing was just…

Barbas smiled in elation as he felt the simmering stew of fear and resentment brewing in all four sisters, fear and frustration at their failures, of what was still to come, of this unseen threat from the shadow. This was too good, and despite his wounds, he knew full well that Sirk was now going after the Firestarter boy. If he managed to kill the boy, Barbas would be able to break them.

And even if not…they were close anyway, Katya had reported as much from the manor, she really had had a stroke of genius when she had suggested this alteration to the original plan.

Soon, the Charmed Ones would fall like overripe fruit.

And all he had to do was give them one last nudge.

Laughing sadistically to himself, he faded away just as the family arrived at Tyler's home.

"Tyler!" Piper roared as they barged into the house to find his adoptive parents struggling under some burning rubble as the sweltering heat of the inferno raged around them.

"His room, please!" Mrs Michaels gasped, and as Leo turned to help her and her husband the four sisters stampeded through into the room to see the demon screaming in pain, his face aflame with fire as a crying and shaking Tyler begged to be left alone.

"You son of a bitch, get the hell away from him!" Piper spat and with a gesture sent the burning reptilian demon flying through the air, smoke now rising from his chest as he cartwheeled away.

"P-Piper?" Tyler breathed in relief, and she gestured him behind them, as the four Charmed Ones went on the offensive while the demon rose to his feet once again.

Paige orbed behind him, her eyes burning with fury, gesturing and with a hiss, the fire around them coiled into a snake which leapt out at him. The demon roared in alarm, lunging out the way, only to be met by Phoebe's feet slamming into his solar plexus as she levitated towards him, sending him sprawling backwards. Landing deftly, she somersaulted out of the way as he threw a thermal ball at her before repeating the process, forcing Paige to orb to safety, but Piper then charged into the breach, blasting at him once again. The demon stumbled, sending a lightning ball at her, only to have it caught and deflected by Prue, crashing it into him before following up with an attack of her own, a telekinetic wave which further annihilated Tyler's room, turning most of it into shrapnel. The demon was caught in the full brunt of the blast, screaming in pain as fire, wood, metal and plastic, combined with witch powers, crashed into him, blasting him against the wall. With a furious roar he threw a series of fireballs at them, Piper freezing them while Phoebe reflected them with her empathy, allowing Paige and Prue to close in on him. He turned, slamming his fist into Prue and sending her toppling towards the fire with a shriek of pain, and a furious Paige retaliated, orbing him away in a telekinetic blast. Hammering onto the ground, he threw a series of energy balls up to ward off the witches and rise back to his feet.

His attacks were many and varied, a storm of fireballs, energy balls and thermal balls, keeping the Charmed Ones off balance as he backed away from them, realising he was overmatched. No matter how much power he had accumulated, he still couldn't stand against all four Charmed Ones at the height of their strength, particularly when they were pissed off. Prue's astral form then appeared from nowhere, dropping catlike to the ground and arcing her foot around, kicking his legs out from under him. Both Prue and Piper struck together, their powers slamming into him as they did so, the demon yelling in agony as their two attacks pressed into him. Crashing to the floor with a thud, Paige then used her orbing and her projection powers to form a hurricane of debris which she coalesced around him then thundered down on him like a meteor shower. Into the chaos, Phoebe began siphoning off his fury, his fear which was rapidly turning into terror, and with a gesture, reflected it back into him tenfold, the demon screeching in agony as the Charmed Ones got closer to vanquishing him. Desperate, he threw a last thermal ball into the ceiling with a last surge of effort, and as the debris rained down around the Charmed Ones, he rolled out from the crashing hurricane of debris, and with a last, hateful glare at the four sisters, the demon shimmered out to safety, leaving the four witches standing in a destroyed, burning room, panting with the effort of the battle.

"That, was too close but man did it feel good. We'll get him next time." Paige breathed, panting heavily, her face red with the heat, the exertion and her anger, and Piper nodded as she continued freezing the fires that Tyler had inadvertently started.

"Yes we will, once this is done, we can get to the book, find out who he is. Sadly, the fact that he's so resistant to our powers makes me think a vanquishing potion may be in order." She admitted, as a hesitant Tyler poked his head back in and then ran to Piper and hugged her in relief.

"I think you're right. But from the looks of it, we've delayed him at the moment, he'll need to go and lick his wounds now if nothing else. We can get Darryl to check on the next several charges on the list, make sure what happened to Glen doesn't happen again." Phoebe said, to the nods of her sisters.

"Are you alright?" Piper asked, and Tyler nodded nervously.

"Yeah, barely, I'd have been dead if my powers hadn't come back," he admitted, and the four sisters exchanged a worried look, for his powers to have emerged through the binding potion Piper had given him, he had to have been in severe danger, and it probably had been way too close, "but you guys were amazing, thank you." He breathed, and Piper wrapped him in another hug as his adoptive parents came through, and he ran to them and hugged them too.

"Thank you, you saved us." Mr Michaels said in giddy relief, hugging his son while Leo came in, looking around the room grimly.

"I'm sorry you were targeted to begin with. We'll get you to safety." Piper promised, as Phoebe used their usual spell to return their home to its former glory.

"Thank you, we owe you so much. You saved us." Mrs Michael gasped, still holding onto her son.

"It's because of us you were put in danger in the first place, but we can think of a place for you to go for now. Gideon!" Piper called, and the Elder appeared instantly, his orbs clouded by the haze of smoke that was still lifting despite Phoebe's spell.

"Oh my, what happened here?" he asked, wafting at the smoke.

"Tyler here was attacked Gideon, he's a Firestarter. Could you maybe keep him and his parents safe in Magic School until we deal with the demon behind this?" Piper asked, and Gideon nodded, a smile coming onto his face as he approached Tyler and shook his hand.

"Of course, say no more. Actually Tyler, I was hoping to meet you in a few weeks time anyway, to offer you a place at my school, now is as good a time as any. Come, I'll get you and your parents to safety, and we can get you acquainted with Magic School. Leo, a word, later." Gideon said, clapping Tyler on the shoulder while sending Leo a pointed look before leading the Michaels family outside to orb them away, leaving the Charmed Ones and Leo standing in Tyler's restored room.

"At least we managed to save Tyler." Paige said softly, and Phoebe wrapped an arm around her as she glared out of the window.

"Either way, it was too close. We need to find out who this demon is, and fast, before he hurts any more of our innocents. On the plus side, we did hurt him, so hopefully he'll be out of the way for a little while at least, time enough to deal with those Darklighters of yours." Piper said, and Leo frowned.

"Piper, the Darklighters can wait, that demon…" he protested, but Piper sent him a dark look.

"Could, for all we know, be linked in with all of this. So, until we can confirm or deny it one way or another, they still need to be taken out, and like you say, a whole clan of them marshalling on the exact same day that we had planned to have Wyatt's party on? There's no way that's a coincidence. That demon is in retreat, so now is when we hit his Darklighter friends. Let's go." She ordered, and the family swept from the house, though even she couldn't suppress the little flash of worry about their chosen course as they headed for the car.

They arrived at the alley where Leo had found the Darklighters marshalling slightly later than they would have liked, and Piper got out the car, sending Prue, who had been driving, a dirty look as she did so.

"I told you that road was blocked off!" she said, and Prue glowered.

"I thought you were just making conversation! How was I to know they had pedestrianised the bloody street, I've been dead the last three years." She harrumphed, and Phoebe rolled her eyes at Paige, and feeling slightly satisfied that she saw the corners of her mouth lift towards a smile, she then interposed herself between her two oldest sisters.

"Ok, time out, save it for the Darklighters." She chided, and Leo allowed himself a small, grim smile.

"Now look, Phoebe is the wisest one. Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked worriedly, pointing towards the alleyway, and for the first time, the four sisters looked at it, and had to admit, it didn't look good.

It was a small, enclosed alley, with only two access points, and lots of low buildings which would be an excellent point for an ambush, particularly when fighting enemies such as Darklighters who obviously could rain arrows down on them from on high.

"He's right you know," Chris warned, orbing in behind them as they edged hesitantly into the alley, thankful that this area of town was quite deserted due to its rather apparent seediness, "this place is the perfect setup for an ambush."

Prue turned to look at her nephew out of the corner of her eye.

"How did you get on with Andy?" she asked, hands ready to deflect if anything went wrong, and he shrugged, not looking happy.

"Well I did every test I could think of, as far as I can see, he has been genuinely resurrected for altruistic reasons, not a hint of dark magic or anything about him. I don't think he appreciated my tests much, but…I don't know Prue, I get you want him to be back, and understand why, but something about his sudden return from the dead just doesn't sit right with me. I told him as much too, wasn't meant to, so I don't think he's my biggest fan." He lamented, and Prue sighed, a slight smile on her face.

"I understand why you're concerned scrappy, truth be told, I'm worried about it too. But, focus, we can worry about Andy later." She ordered, and he looked at their grim faces, feeling the worry in the air.

"What happened?" he asked, and Paige averted her eyes.

"We lost an innocent, my best friend." She admitted, and he felt a slight surge of sorrow.

Glen had been a factor in their lives growing up, the sort of fun loving uncle who would appear at random intervals, to know that he had been killed now, well it did hit home that no matter how good this timeline might be, there was always going to be some sort of trade-off.

"I'm sorry Paige." He whispered, clasping her arm and she gave him a quiet nod as they emerged into the courtyard in the centre of the alleyway.

"You sure they were here Leo?" Phoebe asked, seeing no signs of life, but then, she felt a familiar flicker of her empathy as over two dozen Darklighters appeared from nowhere, with a young looking Darklighter, naturally clad all in black, with a moustache and brown hair smirking at them, blocking their way out of the alley.

"We knew you would come Elder, did you think we didn't know you were spying on us earlier? Why bother chasing you down when you were always going to come here? Kill them!" he roared, and arrows were released in a hailstorm, headed for Leo, Chris and the Charmed Ones.

Leo and Chris orbed out of the way of the arrows, both of them taking a rooftop apiece, landing behind their startled targets before their electrokinesis ripped through them, vanquishing them with a scream. Prue raised her hands, her telekinesis emitting out in roiling, multicoloured waves to knock the arrows away from her and her sisters. Phoebe levitated away from them, leapfrogging onto the roof of another building, then with a gesture, drained the hatred from the Darklighter she had arrived beside, then threw it back at him, immolating him with his own emotions. Piper was on the move, advancing slowly, blowing up every Darklighter she could reach, while using her power to slow down their attacks to move safely between any arrows that Prue missed. Paige however was fury unbridled, her projection power turning on the various Darklighters, determined to make them hurt the same way she was hurting. Orbing a storm of arrows with a gesture, she then twirled them with her projection power before throwing them at their owners, who scattered to avoid being vanquished.

Leo vanquished another Darklighter, orbing back to ground level as they all converged on the leader. Something wasn't quite sitting right here, they were overmatched despite the attempted ambush, and yet they continued to throw Darklighters at him. Prue sent another one plummeting to his death while Piper blasted another, Chris throwing a combustive orb into the face of one who was attempting to shoot him, Phoebe used her psychic reflection to debilitate and destroy a further two and Paige orbed the crossbow out of the hand of another before impaling him with his own weapon.

"Fall back! We need reinforcements before we try this again!" the leader ordered.

"Yes Damien!" one gasped, orbing out just before a bolt of lightning from Leo would have eradicated him.

"Apt." Phoebe commented as they came together in a wedge, the four sisters pushing ahead, Leo slightly in front, blasting lightning at them while Chris brought up the rear.

Leo aimed a blast of lightning at the leader of the Darklighters, there was something about all this, but he couldn't focus on that right now. This Damien was probably recruited by Rennek, and might know where he was, all he had to do was make him talk. Damien smirked as he danced out of the way of another attack from the Elder, his eyes glinting malevolently.

"You missed." He taunted, and Leo growled.

"I won't." Piper assured him, and he turned to see her flick her hands, and he screamed as he was blasted by her powers.

Damien screamed as he was blown apart and exploded, however, something then changed this wasn't an ordinary vanquish. As he screamed and erupted into flames, it coalesced into a massive roiling fireball that surged through the alleyway, bound for the sisters before they could even contemplate stopping it. Paige, in a fit of panic, threw her hands up in desperation, and to her surprise, a shimmering blue shield much akin to Wyatt's shield erupted them, surrounding her and her sisters as the blazing fireball consumed them.

Behind them protected by Paige's shield flaring up in front of them, Chris ducked regardless, his brow furrowed in confusion, that was no ordinary vanquish, what did it mean? However, before he could think any further, a cloth clamped to his face, pressing against his nose and mouth. Chris eyes' bulged in alarm as strong arms wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides. The cloth pressed to his face reeked of chloroform. Trying to struggle, but his powers sluggish due to the chloroform, he tried to move away, tried to kick out, to use his powers, anything, but felt unconsciousness beckon as his eyes rolled back into his head and he went limp, collapsing into the arms of his assailant, who quickly spirited him away.

The firestorm quelled, leaving the four sisters panting weakly in the middle of the alleyway, a little sweaty and blackened with soot.

"Um, what the hell was that?" Phoebe demanded, dusting herself off, and Prue looked around worriedly.

"Good question, whatever that was, it wasn't a normal vanquish. Good save Paige." She said, patting Paige's shoulder proudly, and Paige looked at her hands, just wishing she had had that power develop earlier when she could have used it to save Glen.

"Yeah, another new power to add to the list, but here's the crucial question: where's Leo?" Piper demanded anxiously, looking around the alleyway and registering that her husband was nowhere to be seen, neither was someone else she loved for that matter, "and where the hell is Chris while we're at it?"

The four sisters looked around, their anxiety growing. Leo had been right beside Damien when he had been blown up, but there was no sign of him anywhere. Chris should have been safe as he was right behind them, but he too was missing. Had more Darklighters got them? Had Leo been blown up and just was reassembling herself? Had they truly vanquished Damien? And where the hell was Chris, since he was right behind them? Had someone attacked him from behind, or perhaps kidnapped him?

"Leo? Chris?" Piper called, trying to keep the anxiety and fear out of her voice.

"Leo! Chris!" Paige yelled, also looking increasingly worried as the four sisters separated, trying to find their missing men.

"Where the hell have they gone?" Phoebe demanded, and Prue clenched her teeth, something was wrong here, something had been wrong all day and it had just gotten a lot worse.

"We'll find them. We have to." She said simply, before out of the corner of her eye she saw another Darklighter's black orbs as they appeared.

"I wouldn't count on that." He said, sitting on the edge of the roof of one of the buildings, legs dangling off the edge, his crossbow in hand and pointing at them all, a mocking smile on his face, clad all in leather with his black mop of hair a mess and stirring in the breeze as he beheld them.

"We missed one." Phoebe hissed, raising her hand to use her psychic reflection but as he stared at them all with his black, malicious eyes glinting, Piper extended a hand and forced down Phoebe's, her eyes narrowed as she beheld this mysterious Darklighter.

"No, we didn't. Rennek I presume?" she challenged, and he smiled, inclining his head respectfully.

"My reputation proceeds me I see. You can save yourselves some time looking for Leo and your brat by the way, they're gone." He taunted, an evil smirk upon his face, and Piper glared at her sisters, she could see all of their hands twitching to vanquish him, but they couldn't afford such a mistake, especially at the moment.

"Where are they?" she intoned, and Rennek chuckled.

"You think I'm going to tell you that, the woman my archenemy loves most in the world? Sorry pet but I'd rather keep those particular cards close to my chest. Don't worry yourself though Piper, I'm sure you'll see at least one of them again." He told her, a nasty look in his eye, and Piper suppressed a snarl.

This guy really was a psycho, he didn't even have the usual justification that all the other threats did, he was just an asshole out to make Leo suffer, and didn't care who he burned in order to achieve that.

"What does that mean? You know Piper, let's just vanquish this asshole." Phoebe growled, but Piper held up a hand, staying her sisters.

"She's right, what do you mean?" she asked, and Rennek gave her a mocking laugh.

"It means I know what's happened to both your boys, but the chances of you seeing your actual boy again are slim and none. But if you hurry, and he's lucky, you might at least get to see Leo again. And besides, you're going to need his help." He admitted, admiring his nails on his left hand, his right still clutching his crossbow.

"His help with what?" Prue asked suspiciously, there was something off about him, about the whole thing…

"This little bit of incentive I'm giving you." He snapped, and a split second later, an arrow pinged from his crossbow, zoomed past them and plunged itself into Paige's stomach.

"PAIGE!" Piper screamed as her sister let out a small gasp of pain before collapsing to the ground, clutching at the wound, her sisters marshalling around her as blood blossomed on top of her pink top.

"Be seeing you." Rennek taunted, orbing out with a malevolent laugh just as Piper span to attempt to blast him.

"Paige, Paige, it's alright, hold on, we'll save you." Phoebe promised in a panicked voice, staunching at the blood flow from her baby sister.

"Paige, stay with us!" Prue cried, as her sister's eyes were fluttering shut.

"Paige, no, don't you dare die on us! We need to get back to the manor, check the book, and we can call Gideon there too. Come on!" Piper snapped, taking charge as she led her sisters, carrying Paige as quickly get as gently as they could, out of the alleyway.

As Paige was lifted towards the car, feeling like her entire body was on fire, the sharp, rending pain ripping through her stomach, her last thought before she passed out was that perhaps she had been right: she wasn't nearly as good as Prue, and that maybe she had been right all along, and hadn't really been a Charmed One after all.

"Alright, let's go, up the stairs." Phoebe panted, having been keeping watch while Piper had frozen the whole street in order to get Paige into the house, with Prue carrying her with her powers.

It was risky, but it was the middle of the afternoon and most everyone was at work, and fortunately, the hot neighbour over the road had been frozen by Piper, so hopefully, they were in the clear, otherwise they were going to need to convince the Cleaners to help them again, and that wouldn't be a fun experience for anyone.

Paige had gotten worse during their journey in the car. With Piper driving as comfortably and well as she was able to in her present condition, with Phoebe and Prue tending to Paige, they had been trying to keep her awake, speaking to her, cajoling her, but eventually she had succumbed and had passed out again. While the blood flow had been staunched, in truth they were more concerned about the Darklighter poison now coursing through her body. Ambling up the stairs, Paige moaning incoherently in pained gasps, they got her up to the attic, making a beeline straight for Aunt Pearl's couch, lying her on top of it gently.

The three oldest sisters looked worriedly at their baby sister, fear for her life burning through them. Prue felt this was her fault, if she hadn't come back, Paige would have been still part of the Power of Three, a true witch, wouldn't have gotten the bum end of the stick by a universe determined to enforce order on itself. Piper was looking at her youngest sister, feeling immensely guilt ridder, she had been the one who had said they had to go after the Darklighters, she had led Paige to being attacked and possibly killed. And meanwhile, Phoebe believed it was her doing, for not picking up on Rennek's intentions or figuring out that she was in danger.

However, if they were to save her, they had to get some help first, so as one they turned towards the stand that the Book was on, only to find someone already there.

The same demon they had fought earlier looked at them as he stood at the stand that the Book was on, a small, sinister grin on his face.

"You!" Prue spat, her hand raised, as Piper and Phoebe did the same, prepared to finish him.

"Yeah me. Thanks for the Book ladies." He said, and they exchanged a brief look of confusion.

And then, to their abject horror and incomprehension, he reached out towards the Book, and to their shock, no force field appeared to block him, no automatic defence triggered. The demon laid his hands on the Book, on the very thing they needed to get them out of this mess, and gave them a cheeky wink before shimmering out, taking the Book of Shadows with him.

"What the-?" Phoebe gasped, that was impossible, how the hell had a demon managed to take the Book so easily, with no trouble at all from the Book itself?

"That's impossible!" Prue gasped, the sheer enormity of how screwed they were suddenly imposing upon her, and she staggered back weakly.

Piper took it upon herself to go to the stand first, looking at it like it had betrayed them somehow, before looking up at her white or ashen faced sisters, both of them shaking in horror, while Paige's life slipped away on the sofa behind them.

"So to sum up, we have a lunatic demon on the loose murdering our innocents, a psychotic Darklighter with a grudge trying to kill the love of my life, my husband is missing, my son is missing, our sister is dying, and now to top it all off, said lunatic demon has just stolen the freaking Book of Shadows!" she screeched, holding onto the stand for support.

"Yeah, not our best day. Um, how screwed are we?" Phoebe asked, turning back to Paige as she let out a rattling breath.

"Oh, beyond screwed," Piper whispered, as they needed the Book to find Leo, to find Chris, to save Paige, "we are so beyond screwed."

Prue looked around at her sisters, the sheer enormity of what had just transpired, and its implications, sinking in.

"Yeah, we're screwed. In fact, unless we sort this soon…we're dead."

How is everyone coping with lockdown? I hope this at least helps relieve some of the boredom im sure most people are feeling. Im sure we would all like to use Prue's spell she used against Tempus to move us to when all this is over, the sooner the better, so i hope everyone stays safe, follows government advice, and does everything they can to help the sick, their health services and are also nice to the shop workers, its not our fault (that said ive only had four twats have a go at me the last two weeks but its still four too many)

Onto happier things, well not for the Halliwell clan. Sirk has stolen the Book of Shadows, both Leo and Chris are missing, Paige is dying and innocents are dropping like flies, they certianly havent had a good time of it today. I was going to include a Winchester like line, 'must be whatever day it was' but season six was broadcast on a sunday in america, so that wouldnt work. And I felt terrible for killing off Glen, so bad for Paige.

Im sure youre wondering how Sirk was able to steal the book, but that will be revealed next chapter, though i daresay some of you can make an educated guess. Where is Leo? Who kidnapped Chris? I realised this morning I forgot a scene but Ill put it in next chapter as well

As you might have been able to tell, this is the first part of a two parter, leading into the halfway point of the story! One chapter left and next chapter ends with a cliffhanger that may be somewhat familiar. Anyway, until then, thanks once again for reading, everyone stay safe and good luck, thank you to those who reviewed last chapter, and please review this time too! Im now off to answer the latest emails from Terra King before i start the next chapter