Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed

Timeless Mistakes

"Thanks Glynnis, that'll be helpful when the time comes." Regina said kindly, clapping the magical weaponsmith on the shoulder.

Truth be told, she was impressed they had made it this long without anyone finding out that Wyatt was in the midst of resurrecting in the catacombs. Sam and Liam remained on guard, only swapping for sleep with Regina and Ezekiel when they needed to. Wyatt himself was nearly fully formed, just a little bit more filling out to do, and then he would be back, or at least that was how Regina thought Neena's spell would work. She was just contemplating going and checking on the resurrecting former emperor when the entire dome of the Nexus of the All shuddered with a loud, thunderous rumble.

"What was that?" Jackson asked, his eyes glowing blue as another rumble made the entire building shake, and Regina felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.

They had found them.

Hurtling to the battlements, the former Evil Queen of Storybrooke, now the last defender of the free magical peoples, emerged onto the wall of the fortress that the last magic users of the world were hiding in, and looked beyond the now opaque wall of the dome, and saw that this time, it truly was the end.

Over two hundred Sky Annihilators filled the skies, planes descending from them, their sonic booms further shaking the Nexus dome. Drones swarmed around the dome, all of them probing for a weakness. And beneath them, staining the entire surface of the desert with their crimson armour, was the Twilight Legion, this time hundreds of thousands strong, their weapons poised and ready to make their move on the last bastion of magic. A hoverbarge was at the far side of the enemy emplacement, and Regina felt that if she squinted enough, she could make out Pratt, Greene, Eventide, and…

Curious, she muttered a quick spell to improve her eyesight, and felt the colour drain from her face. Gerard Argent, the most bitter and twisted supernatural hunter that had ever lived was also on the barge, that did explain a lot.

Either way, there was no escaping this one.

"What do we do?" Mulan asked her in a soft voice, appearing beside her, and Regina took a deep breath.

"We can't win here, we knew that this was the end. But we have to hold, long enough for Neena's spell to complete, it's the only way we can fix this mess, fix all of it. We don't have a choice," she uttered, the admission somehow giving her a perverse form of strength, "peoples of the free magical world, this is our last stand! The enemy has found us, here at the Nexus of the All! Tap into its power, feel it rushing through you, we will make them pay for every square inch in blood! Rally my friends, and we will make them rue this last day of the supernatural for now and for all eternity!" she bellowed across the varied refugees of the magical world, and was answered with a resounding cheer just as a harried looking Sam joined her on the battlements.

"This is it, the end game. The end of all things." Sam whispered, and she took his cheek in her hand and forced him to look at her.

"No, not yet. There is still Wyatt. If Neena is right, that is the only way we can fix all of this, to trust her, to trust Wyatt, to trust Chris, and you, like me, know better than to bet against the Halliwells. We have to hold Sam, long enough for that spell to finish, or everything is lost. You hear me? We must hold." She insisted, and with a grim look on his face, he nodded, a final look of understanding passing between them, and he headed for the catacombs.

With a click of her finger, Regina donned her purple battle armour. One last battle for the last queen of the Enchanted Forest, for the last queen of the magical peoples.

One last battle in which she hoped to buy time to fix the destruction that had been wrought on the world.

One last battle before she saw everyone she had loved and lost again in whatever came next.

One last battle here at the end of all things.

"For magic!" she roared, swirling down to the front of her yelling, charging troops in a storm of purple smoke as Pratt's forces opened fire, and the Final Battle truly began.

XX

The storm raged around the Triad as they tapped into their collective power, feeling the sheer enormity of what they were doing ripping through them. The inverted pentagram on the floor was shining a burning crimson as lightning crackled around them, flames licking around the border of the sigil as they pooled their power in order to bring back this final part of the plan. Asmodeus, Baliel and Candor were struggling to maintain their power, though Xar was worse, his face ashen, sweat lashing off him as he combined his power with his compatriots.

"Hold firm brothers, we are nearly there!" Asmodeus encouraged, though he had to admit, the strain of bringing back this particular demon from the wasteland was much more significant than he had originally anticipated.

"This is suicide!" Xar spat, and Asmodeus had to admit, he did look the worst off out of the four of them.

"Never fear brother, we have succeeded!" Candor boasted, as a plume of fire erupted in the centre of the pentagram on the floor, and the demon they had been looking for erupted back onto the floor, panting heavily.

Sighing with the exertion, the Triad broke the circle, allowing for the flames and lightning to subside as the demon in the centre of their circle struggled to his feet.

"Welcome back my friend." Asmodeus said with a dark smirk, and the demon looked at himself in awe, then looked questioningly at the Triad, his eyes alight with suspicion.

"All will be explained soon my friend. Come, we must rest ourselves, and we shall inform you of all that has transpired. I know you don't have much reason to trust us, particularly due to the lies spread by Belthazor, but I assure you, we are all on the same side, and I believe once you hear what we have to say you will want to work with us too." Candor said, clapping the demon on the shoulder, though still received a suspicious look from the demon.

And as they explained all that had happened recently, they were delighted to find that said demon was indeed willing to help. In fact, he could hardly wait, his blue eyes a storm of rage as he prepared himself for his mission.

XX

"How the hell did that demon get the Book of Shadows?" Piper demanded furiously, looking around desperate for any sort of sign, anything they had missed, but there was nothing, no sign of their sacred book.

Phoebe gnawed on her lip, this was bad, very bad. But while Piper was freaking out, she had every right to, a demon had no business taking the Book without a fight, and the fact that he had was seriously alarming, especially when they actually needed it.

Prue breathed, they needed to focus. Having a breakdown wasn't going to help.

"Alright, first thing's first, we need to try and heal Paige, that's our main priority, then we can go from there and try and fix everything else that's just gone epically wrong, and since we can't get Leo…Gideon!" she cried hopefully, and heard an answering jingle.

A minute later, he walked up the stairs into the attic, sweating a little from the exertion.

"Apologies, I didn't realise you were up here. How can I help?" he asked, and Phoebe gestured towards Paige, still lying on the couch, now looking very grey, haggard and limp, her breath coming in a death like rattle.

"First of all, can you help Paige?" she asked, and Gideon's eyes widened in alarm, rushing towards her.

"What happened to her?" he asked worriedly, running a critical eye over her, and Prue breathed through her nose in annoyance.

"Rennek. We went after a bunch of Darklighters, and he shot her." She informed him, and Gideon nodded to himself, muttering as he ran his hands over Paige as though he was scanning her for something.

"He always was something of a psychotic…but where is Leo?" he asked in concern, and Piper closed her eyes wearily.

"He…kind of disappeared during the battle, so did Chris, we don't know what happened to either of them." She admitted, and Gideon's eyes widened in shock.

"Leo is missing? How?" he demanded, glowing light emitting from his hands as he attempted to heal Paige, but then his brow furrowed in confusion, trying once again as his healing glow faltered.

"We vanquished a Darklighter, but the explosion was weird, and when it stopped, Leo was gone. Gideon, why isn't it working?" Piper asked, noting the rising look of anxiety on the Elder's face, and he looked at them, aghast.

"It seems my powers are having no effect on the wound." He muttered to himself, and even he had to admire the ingenuity of Rennek's craft if he, one of the most powerful Elders, couldn't manage to heal her.

"What, how? I thought you were some sort of big kahuna up there?" Phoebe demanded, gesturing towards the heavens, and Gideon nodded, looking very grave.

"Yes, I am one of the most powerful among the council certainly, my worry is however that Rennek is no ordinary Darklighter, and he's made it his mission to get to Leo. It would seem that, whatever he has done, he has created this particular strain of the Darklighters poison, which is so potent to Whitelighters and warped it somehow, made it incredibly specialised. It would seem that anyone other than Leo is unable to heal this, that would explain my inability. I don't know if he had warped it so that it particularly affects witchlighters like Paige, or if its just in the healing aspect, however it would seem that without Leo, we are totally unable to heal her. I'm sorry I can't be of more help." He said grimly, clasping Phoebe on the shoulder as she looked at her baby sister with a horrified look on her face.

No, this wasn't happening. They couldn't lose Paige, not now, not after everything that happened in order to bring all four Charmed Ones together in this timeline. That simply wasn't an option.

"Ok, thanks Gideon, we'll call you if we need more help." Prue said, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her fingers.

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help. We will of course continue to look after Wyatt at Magic School for now Piper." He assured them, and she nodded in thanks before heading downstairs with a small bow to them.

"We can't let Paige die." Piper said, looking sadly at her dying sister as they all tried to think.

It wasn't just Paige dying, or even the boys being missing, but there was still that demon out there assassinating innocents, and of course, the small matter of the Book being stolen.

"Ok…right, we can't help Paige till we help Leo, so that's our first priority. But there's also the matter of the Book, but we probably can't fix that until we fix Paige, as that'll probably be a Power of Four job. There's still Chris missing, and our innocents being targeted…ok, new plan. Pheebs, go to Darryl with Piper's list of potential victims, try and protect as many as you can, with or without police help, ok?" Prue asked, and Phoebe nodded, though she looked hesitant to leave at a time like this.

"Ok, and I can cast some enchantments and stuff, but if that demon comes back…" she began, and Piper looked at her grimly.

"It's the best we can do Phoebe, we can't let any more innocents die, too many have died as it is. What should I do?" she asked, and Prue turned her attention to her younger sister.

"Well, Chris is missing and Paige is dying, but let's face it, Chris knows more about all this stuff than all of us. See if you can try to get him back here, summon him, rituals, any of that, that might help. And you can watch Paige too." She explained, and Piper looked at her curiously.

"How, what are you doing?" she asked, and Prue shrugged.

"It all went wrong in that alley, I'm going to go and see if I can find anything that gives us a hint to where they are, what happened there. Alright, let's go." She ordered, stroking Paige's hair as she left, Phoebe hot on her heels while a worried Piper prepared herself for her rituals.

XX

"Hmm, well this clearly isn't good." Leo grumbled, ducking as another arrow pinged down the alley he had run down.

Whatever the hell had happened when Piper had blown up Damien, who was the one firing arrows at him he might add, it had sent him somewhere else. From the fact that everything was in black and white, or shades of grey if he was feeling generous, he clearly wasn't in the normal, mortal realm anymore, but it didn't immediately answer where the hell he was.

All he did know was he was being chased by a Darklighter, who still had a full quiver of arrows, with every intention of killing him, and he himself didn't even have the power to so much as file his nails, let alone defend himself against a murderous Darklighter.

"Come on out Elder! Rennek is paying me a fortune to take you down, and I get a bonus if it's long, drawn out, and painful!" Damien taunted through the deserted streets as Leo sheltered in an alcove, breathing heavily.

That in and of itself didn't make sense. Rennek wanted to kill Leo himself, and he had clearly hired all of those Darklighters in order to lure them into a trap, in order to get him here, which he had admittedly blundered right into. Maybe Gideon was right, maybe he was too close to all of this. But why would Rennek want him here? What did he stand to gain from it? It just didn't make any sense, especially when Leo knew full well Rennek wanted to kill him himself.

For the time being though, he had to get out of here, get to safety, maybe come up with some sort of a plan. And for the moment the extent of his plan was to get away from Damien as he couldn't defend himself. Sneaking away, he caught sight of Damien at the other end of the alley, looking the opposite way, and made a break for it, through the deserted, eerie and silent black and white streets to what he hoped would be safety.

XX

Darryl suppressed a groan as Phoebe got off the phone. He had always known that the girls did a lot of good, but this just showed he didn't know the half of how many people they had saved over the years, and this was obviously just the list of everyone they had saved with Paige, let alone all the innocents that they had saved with Prue. Figuring that whatever demonic shenanigans were behind this couldn't end fast enough, he wondered how he could get all of these people protected.

Phoebe had said she was taking as many of the innocents who lived close to the manor and putting all sorts of protective spells up, so she was actually dealing with some not on this list, but that left Darryl the weighty task of trying to protect the rest without arousing the suspicion of Sheridan, who was already suspicious enough. Sadly, Darryl had just been coming back from getting Stan Provazoli into protective custody after Chris' tip off when he heard that Sheridan had picked up the call from a neighbour reporting screams and cries from Glen's apartment, and that meant she was now perilously close to suspecting the sisters of being involved in everything that was happening with their innocents. Furthermore, as part of her procedure, Sheridan would pull all the cameras at the crime scene where Glen had been killed which meant there was a chance she would discover the Halliwells were present at his apartment around the same time. And he also had it on good authority from the office gossip that her curiosity had now led her to try and find Chris on the database, and Leo too, which of course would lead to its own uncomfortable set of questions.

Thank god for the small miracle that the two tip offs of the innocents he hadn't been able to save had come from phones inside Magic School so she couldn't link that back either.

However, Tyler Michaels was safe, and he was at Magic School, and thankfully Karen Young had been brought in for an interview with her local station about a burglary at her neighbours, so he had called their station and asked them to keep her delayed indefinitely. There was also the witch neophyte Selena who had been given a handler from the FBI, so they had been warned and she was now under guard too.

But that was still loads of people left on the list, and first of all he had to save the former mermaid Mylie and her husband, Craig, before they too became victims.

But with Sheridan…

"Inspector? There's a message from you, it came for you while you were out." A clerk said, passing him the message, and Darryl was about to brush it off when he read its contents and fear flared within him.

That was all they needed, he needed to call Piper.

Chris' life likely depended upon it.

XX

Piper was relieved that all the times she had tried to cast this spell when she had been trying to absorb Prue's loss had been useful for something, she remembered it off the top of her head, not that it was helping her much at the moment, she had tried every ritual she could think of, yet had made no progress. She had called and summoned both Leo and Chris and had had nothing, and done this spell so many times, and she felt it reaching out, it just couldn't help her locate her absent son.

Forty fifth time lucky?

"Power of the witches rise

Course unseen across the skies

Come to us who call you near

Come to us and settle here

Blood to blood, I summon thee

Blood to blood, return to me."

She could feel the spell pulling at her, pulling outwards, as though it picked up on Chris, but wherever the hell he was, she just couldn't get to him. Cursing, and resenting the fact that Leo wasn't available to heal the cut she had on her finger from doing the ritual, she looked at her ritual bowl as though it had failed her, which it kind of had, but she was out of yarrow, cypress and rosemary anyway, and her hand hurt from the cut she had had to give herself to summon Chris.

Wherever the hell he was, she wasn't getting him out again in a hurry, and that thought filled her with dread, the kid had almost died too many times as it was.

As if prompted by her dark thoughts, the phone rang, startling her. Keeping a half eye on Paige who had gotten even more grey in the last half hour, her breath rattling as she let out breaths in short, stunted fits. Cursing, and keeping a close eye on her sister, she answered.

"Hello?" she asked, and then heard Darryl's panicked voice at the other end.

"Piper, please tell me Chris is safe with you!" he whispered urgently, and she closed her eyes in irritation, that probably meant Sheridan was floating around, but then his words sank in and she felt her stomach collapse in on itself.

"No, he's disappeared, we don't know where he is, why?" she asked, breathless, and Darryl swore loudly (which obviously wouldn't help if Sheridan was indeed floating around).

"I just got a message. Piper, I think he's in danger. Dan Gordon somehow managed to escape last night." He told her, and overriding, maternal terror overcame her as she dropped the phone in alarm.

XX

Paige didn't feel quite right, she felt…light was the only thing that she could use to describe it. And she was fairly sure that in terms of her long term survival and good health did not include her feeling light. However, that was the case she was in. She was in the manor, she knew that much, and if she tried, she thought she could hear her sisters, and more recently just Piper, swearing rather a lot admittedly. But on the other side, she could hear nothing for this weird place, wherever the hell she was, was eerily silent. It was quiet, and there was no colour whatsoever, it was all in black and white, in various shades of grey. Which meant that whatever was happening to her, it wasn't good.

"Leo? Leo?" she called, the noise echoing around the manor, but she didn't like the echo, it felt weird and she suddenly had a feeling that she should stay quiet as much as possible, this place didn't feel right.

None of this felt right.

She remembered the arrow driving into her gut, she remembered the fight with the Darklighters, but everything else was becoming hazy. She was now feeling light and weird, like she was floating, and she had been a witch long enough to know that that wasn't good.

But what the hell did she do now?

"Piper? Prue? Phoebe? Leo? Chris?" she asked in a panicked whisper, and still received no response.

What did she do? She could stay in the manor, but somehow, that didn't feel right. Trusting her sisters to figure this out, she decided to head back to the alley where they had battled the Darklighters, perhaps she could find some clue as to what was happening to her there.

XX

Chris slowly came to, groaning as he did so. Wait, had he been kidnapped again? A quick self assessment found him still clothed (good, no perverted nonsense like with Jenny and Greg), groggy (from the chloroform), and tied to a chair, ropes binding him to the arms of the chair, straining against the leather of his jacket, and also ropes binding his legs to those of the chair. This was getting seriously tired, why did bad guys keep picking on him?

He opened his eyes, and he groaned in annoyance as he answered his own question.

That was why, as his kidnapper hated him at the best of times even before he had gone completely round the twist.

And now he was most likely even worse.

It was Dan who had kidnapped him.

"Come on, give me a break!" he complained, and Dan looked at him, his eyes mad and glinting.

Clearly, he had not coped with being in the madhouse well. Months after defeated, and then months of being tormented by Grams, Patty and Prue had totally broken whatever semblance of sanity that might have remained to him following their last encounter. His once perfect hair was how hanging in greasy curtains past his shoulders, his perfect smile having lost a couple of teeth since their last encounter. His eyes were now mad and glinting, showing the madness within. His fingernails were quite long now, and he had a slight stoop, and there was a beard growing on his face too, and he just looked dirty.

Hmm, maybe that asylum wasn't the best equipped, either that or Dan just wasn't a good patient. Figuring it was the latter, he glared at Dan as he came closer to him.

"Hello Chris, miss me?" Dan hissed, and Chris glared at him.

"Hardly, how the hell did you get out of the madhouse?" he demanded, glinting, and began trying to use his telekinesis to undo the ropes that Dan had tied him to the chair he was currently sitting in with.

Actually, come to think of it, where the hell was he? It was like a room, but the walls were made of swirling, beige material with sort of roiling clouds moving around them. All that was here was Chris, tied to his chair, and Dan with a small table of less than friendly looking appliances awaiting at his command, and Chris had a horrible feeling about what he might have planned to do with those.

"The wise man helped me, said he could help me get Piper back, said he could help make you disappear. Yeah, he said your little tricks wouldn't work if that's what you're trying." He boasted, and Chris looked up at Dan, this time in fear.

He tried everything. His powers simply wouldn't come. Why was it every time he crossed swords with his maniac he was absolutely powerless to do anything about it? But how had Dan taken away his powers? He had no magic, it was impossible. Unless…this weird room he was in, perhaps he was in some mini sub dimension, like the ones Gith had made months ago, most likely created by this wise man that Dan had mentioned. And that meant that this wise man of Dan's had ensured Chris couldn't defend himself, no magic, just him, trapped in this weird, tiny world with the man who wanted him dead the most.

He was trapped, tied to a chair, unable to free himself, no matter how much he struggled to escape his bonds. And he was trapped with Dan, who had already tried to kill him once before, and from the look of dark excitement on his face was going to do it again, and unless something gave soon, he could very well succeed.

"So Chris, you an I are going to have a long talk…and then I'm going to make sure you never interfere with my relationship ever again!" Dan purred psychotically, and Chris tried to struggle against his bonds as the lunatic came closer to him, a dark look on his face.

XX

Prue was at her wits end. She had come to the alleyway in the vague, forlorn hope that she could find something, anything, that could give them a clue to the whereabouts of Leo and of Chris. Hell, anything that would help them save Paige. Hell, she would take another encounter with Rennek at the moment!

But there was nothing, no clues to be had, no hints as to what had occurred here. Which meant she couldn't even begin how to figure out how to save Paige. She checked her watch, Paige had been wounded, most likely dying, for over an hour now. Who knew how long she had left? Would Paige even still be alive when she got home?

She kneaded her temples tiredly, this was getting her nowhere. There was no sign of anything that could explain what had happened here, however the fact that she hadn't gotten a call from either Phoebe or Piper meant they hadn't had any luck either, which left them right back where they started. They were stuck, no matter what happened, they were stuck, there was no way out of this unless they got something that gave them a break, if they could even find some hint of where one of them was…

"Prue?" a voice asked from behind her, and startled, she whirled, prepared to blast whoever it was up the alley, but upon seeing it was Andy, she calmed down and lowered her hand.

"Andy, hi, what are you doing here, you're meant to be keeping out of sight." She chided, and he shrugged.

"I think I was freaking Sheila out a little, so I went for a walk, see how the place has changed since I've been, you know, gone. Then I saw you come down here. What's wrong?" he asked, a concerned look on his face, and she looked at him helplessly.

"We were attacked by a Darklighter, Rennek. He's shot Paige and she's dying, and Leo and Chris are both missing, and the Book's been stolen on top of all that, and we can't fix one thing let alone all of them, we need Leo to save Paige, we don't know where he is, or where Chris is, and the Book's gone, while the demon that took the Book is murdering our innocents one by one. And you're suddenly back, and I don't know what that means, and we have Sheridan breathing down our necks, and the Mercers are still needing to be dealt with, and I…I-I don't know how to fix this Andy." She admitted, feeling herself well up, and saying nothing, Andy wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close to him and running his hands through her hair.

"Shh. Prue, listen to me. Look at me," he said softly, taking her chin in his hand and tilting her tear streaked face to look at his, "you are the most capable woman I have ever met. Hell, death itself couldn't even keep you down, because here you are, back from the dead. But you also are trying to do too much. You said yourself how proud you were of Piper for stepping up after you died. You helped mould her into the all-powerful, kickass witch she's become. You don't need to shoulder the burden yourself any more Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige are all equally capable of stepping up, meaning you don't have to do everything alone. When we were in the afterlife, in the heavens, it was your destiny, you not being with your sisters, that ripped you apart. But Prue, you're back, reunited with your family. So take a breath, relax, and work with them. You aren't alone anymore." He told her softly, and she sniffed a little, a small smile playing on her lips as she let his words sink in.

"Thank you Andy." She whispered, leaning her head on his shoulder.

Through their time in the afterlife, he had gotten the worst of her lashing out, of her anger, her bitterness and frustration at the injustice, the pain, of all of it. But he had held firm, and often calming her down, to the extent where she could, well not enjoy her afterlife per se, but at least accept it.

Nice to know that whatever had happened to bring them together again, that hadn't changed.

"So what do you do now?" Andy asked, and Prue contemplated for a second, then took a deep breath, letting it out.

"We can't do anything until we figure out a way to save Paige, and for that we need Leo. So, I'm going to go home, help Piper try and figure out how to get him back, at least I can do that until some other brainwave strikes me." She told him, and he nodded, looking at her proudly.

"That's my girl. Can I help?" he asked, and she did briefly consider it, but she decided that now was not the time to be dealing with all the reunions and introductions and things that would cause.

"Not at the moment babe. Enjoy your walk down memory lane, but do us all a favour and don't get seen, especially by Sheridan. And," she said softly, craning her neck and kissing him softly, which she detected a small smile in response to, "thank you, for putting up with me again."

Andy grinned.

"Well I've gotten pretty good at it for the last three years, and despite everything that's happened recently, I can see you're loving life, literally. You'll get through this Prue, I know you will. After all, you're the most stubborn person I've ever met, so much so you were killed and couldn't even stay dead." He teased, and she winked at him.

"You know it. I'll call when I know more. Bye Andy. I love you." She said softly, kissing him on the cheek and heading back to Piper's car, leaving Andy in the alley, a soft smile on his face as he looked at her retreating back.

And he knew full well that with Paige's life in danger, Chris and Leo both missing, innocents being murdered, and all the other things going on, he really shouldn't be thinking this but he couldn't help it: she really was rocking the blonde look, and looked better than ever in his opinion.

XX

Leo breathed a sigh of relief, he seemed to have given Damien the slip for now. He was now a couple of blocks away from where he had first emerged into this weird world, and was sheltering in an apartment with a good view of the streets. He reckoned he was safe, at least for the moment, and without the risk of Damien finding him and killing him, he could finally think for a second about his predicament.

So, wherever he was, he was trapped in a world with no magic, no way of contacting the girls, and a murderous Darklighter on his tail. He'd risked calling for Paige, for Chris, but to no avail, and he couldn't orb or do anything else. So he was stuck here, with no way of calling for help.

Clearly though, he wasn't dead, and that was enough for now. But he hadn't found anything that could remotely function as a weapon to enable him to try and fight against Damien, he couldn't jury rig weapons the way Paige once had.

But perhaps Paige could, he thought, as he happened to look out of the window and saw her edging towards the alleyway where they had fought the Darklighters. Maybe whatever had happened had happened to her too, and strangely, that was actually something of a relief. But now she was out, on the streets, unprotected, and with a Darklighter out there, she was the most vulnerable out of all her sisters.

He had to act fast.

Edging out of the apartment he had been sheltering in, he edged as quickly and as cautiously as he could, peering his head out of the door and saw her up ahead, yet still no sign of Damien. Thank god for small miracles. Hurrying along the street, he reached just behind her and clapped a hand to her mouth to stop her screaming in alarm, then turned her to face him, using his arm to stop as she turned and blocked her attempt to punch him in the face, making him roll his eyes as she attempted to do so.

"Leo! Don't sneak up on me like that in some weird world! Any idea where we are?" she asked curiously, and he shook his head.

"None I'm afraid. Where are your sisters, and Chris?" he asked in a quiet voice, taking her upper arm and leading her back the way he had come.

"I've no idea, I don't think we're in the normal world anymore. After Piper blasted that Damien guy, you and Chris had both vanished. Rennek showed up, by the way. He's a nice guy, he shot me." She explained irritably, and he looked at her, and for the first time saw the wound on her stomach.

"Paige!" he protested, trying to heal her, then being painfully reminded that he in fact, couldn't.

She looked at him expectantly, but then when it failed again, she began to look concerned.

"Why aren't your powers working?" she asked, and he gave her a funny look.

"Are yours?" he asked, and she shook her head sadly.

"No, but I put that down to whatever Rennek did to me when he shot me, I think the girls tried to get Gideon to heal me, but he couldn't. Any ideas?" she asked, and he was about to respond when an arrow came flying towards them, and Leo tackled Paige to the ground as it plunged into the wall above them.

"Found you again Elder!" Damien crowed, loading another arrow, barely registering Paige's presence before firing another arrow at the two of them.

The two of them scrambled to their feet as another arrow flew towards them, and Paige was really starting to miss her powers right about now. Leo grabbed her upper arm and they began to run as Damien closed in on them, however as they turned a corner, Paige faded from Leo's grasp and disappeared.

"What the?" he asked in shock, however the sound of another arrow whistling through the air distracted him and he decided to make himself scarce before the Darklighter caught up with him again.

XX

"Leo?" Paige asked, and Piper gave her barely conscious sister an unamused look.

"That better be you shouting for him because you want him to heal you missy Paige." She warned, squatting down beside her sister and stroking her hair affectionately, though she couldn't deny that she was worried.

It had been a long day. What with all their various crises, and now Paige dying, Leo and Chris missing, and of course baby Chris had been an active little blighter today, she too was spent. However, Paige seemed fairly stable. Her breath was still coming out in rattling gasps, her strawberry blonde hair was plastered to her head in a feverish sweat, and her skin was still an unhealthy shade of grey, but Piper had written a spell (she was quite proud of it, if she did say so herself) and had used it to make sure the poison hadn't reached Paige's heart yet which of course would finish her, but so far, she was still clinging on to life.

"Just stay with us honey, we'll think of something." She promised her baby sister worriedly, just as Phoebe entered the attic, looking nearly as tired as Piper felt.

"Hey, any change?" she asked, coming down to sit on the cushions Piper had been sitting on beside Paige earlier and taking Piper's hand, forcing her to sit down properly.

Feeling a teensy bit resentful (it had taken her a good ten minutes to get up from this position last time which was why she hadn't gone back to sitting on the floor beside her sister) she shook her head.

"No, I cast a spell, and from what I could see the poison is slow, maybe Gideon was right, maybe Rennek actually wants Leo to save her, it's taking its sweet time to get to her heart thank god." She explained, and Phoebe gave her a quizzical look.

"Well that's good, but why try and kill Paige but leave us with a get out of jail free card?" she asked, perplexed, and Piper shrugged.

"I don't know, but if it keeps Paige alive, I'm not complaining. I read up more on Rennek while you were gone, he doesn't follow the whole good vs evil thing, which is weird itself. No, I reckon he shot Paige to force Leo to save her, maybe just to throw him off or delay him, though not going to lie, the thought crossed my mind that Leo healing her might finish her off since he particularly hates Leo. Anyway," she asked, distracting Phoebe who was also now pondering the same disturbing implication she had hours before, "how did you get on with our innocents?"

Phoebe looked at her tiredly, but did squeeze her hand.

"Stan Provazoli, Tyler, Karen Young and that witch Selena are all quite safe thanks to either us or Darryl, or in Selena's case the FBI, turns out she fell for her handler, so Darryl tipped her off and the two of them have gone to ground as part of their happily ever after. Darryl got Mylie and her husband to safety, Ava's gypsy clan have all gone onto lockdown so she's safe, and I cast a good few spells, so hopefully, we can make sure the others are protected for the time being. Darryl's keeping an eye on a few more, and Jessica has a police guard anyway because of what happened to Glen. Katrina has taken her entire army of cat familiars in training to Magic School poor Sigmund is less than happy, but we've got a good number protected or accounted for, but there's still a good few we can't find, or can't protect." She explained, and while it pleased Piper that they had managed to protect so many, it worried her that others were still at risk, though she knew there had to be an element of cold bloodedness in this regard when all their innocents were under attack.

She did smile slightly at the image of Sigmund being overrun by Katrina and her army of cats, sneezing all the while.

"Poor Sigmund, he isn't having much luck at the moment." She commented, after all, the poor fellow was totally terrified of her, but because of his position as Gideon's deputy, he got to deal with her more often than most of his staff other than most other than Mrs Winterbourne and Gideon himself.

"Leo…" Paige moaned, and Phoebe looked at her sister hopefully, but this time, Paige seemed to lapse back into unconsciousness again.

Piper hated this, she hated not having the Book, not having Chris or Leo, she hated feeling so…helpless, powerless. She was one of the four most powerful witches the world had ever known, and here she was, forced to watch her sister struggle for her life and they could do nothing about it.

"Paige?" Phoebe asked, sounding concerned, but Piper squeezed her hand.

"Don't worry, she's been doing that, I'm slightly concerned that my baby sister keeps calling for my husband though." She said, an amused smile on her face, and Phoebe grinned.

"You don't need to worry, Chris is right, Leo would never cheat on you, especially with a sister, you'd kill him. She's probably just wanting him to heal her." She assured, and Piper grinned, she knew that, but still, least she could still joke about this.

"Piper, Phoebe!" Prue called from downstairs, and the two middle sisters exchanged a slight smile, it was so nice hearing her call like that again.

"Up here!" Phoebe called, and a minute or so later Prue entered the attic, looking stressed.

"I found nothing in the alley to help us. How has she been?" she asked worriedly, sitting down beside her sisters and taking Paige's hand to reassure herself.

"As alright as she's going to get I think. In other news though, I might have a clue as to who took Chris." Piper said, and both her sisters looked at her in excitement.

"You know where he is?" Phoebe asked, and she shook her head.

"No. But Darryl called, and it turns out Dan escaped last night. I'm thinking that whoever sprung him," she explained, choosing to ignore the shocked looks on the faces of her sisters, "as someone has to have in order to mess with us, no way he got out on his own, did so and then engineered it so he would disappear the same time as Leo did. I've tried every spell I can think if, but obviously it's worse without the Book, but I can't summon Chris or take myself to him. I'm just worried about whatever the hell Dan might be doing to him if he is the one behind it."

Phoebe looked tired, rubbing her face with the heel of her palm.

"This is ridiculous. Dan now, really, as if we didn't have enough on our plates. So, nothing, no way to summon, or reverse engineer a spell to take us to Chris?" she asked anxiously, and Piper shook her head sadly.

"No, I've tried everything but I've got nada. Wherever Chris is, he's on his own." She lamented, her fear for her son ripping her apart, but no matter how they span it, the Charmed Ones were screwed, they couldn't fix one problem without fixing the others, and they couldn't fix the others without fixing another problem first.

"Oh god I hope he's alright. Don't worry though Piper, he's strong, and we won't let Dan hurt him if we can help it." Prue assured her sister, stroking her sister's hair behind her ear.

"So, what do we do?" Phoebe asked helplessly, looking at Paige, and admittedly, there wasn't much that they could do about the whole situation, they needed something to break.

But as that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Prue, I know you won't want to do this, but you might as well go to the Mercers." She told her older sister, and Prue looked at her, aghast.

"What, are you crazy? Paige is dying, the boys are missing, that demon is still out there…" she protested, but Piper held up a hand to forestall her sister's continuous ranting.

"All true. But I've tried everything to get the Book back, had no luck, I think you're right, it'll need all four of us. Paige is as stable as she's going to get, and until something else breaks, we can't find the boys, and Phoebe and Darryl have done as much as they can to protect our remaining innocents. Phoebe and I can stay here, set up a protective circle and work on trying to help Paige, we might have more luck with the two of us. And, realistically honey…if we can't save Paige, we'll need you to have your life back, and we all know that Paige wouldn't want you to miss your chance for your life back just for her." She told her softly, and though Prue opened her mouth to protest further, looking scandalised, Phoebe took her hand and sat in her lap, drawing Prue's attention to her.

"She's right Prue, you might as well go. Piper can take the lead here, and Paige knows what's at stake for you. We'll call you if anything changes. Besides, I wrote a spell for you to help you with Mercer, seems a shame not to use it. Go, it'll be fine, we'll call you the instant something happens." She assured her sister, and Prue looked back and forth between her two sisters, she had never been so torn in her life.

She knew that the two of them, and Andy by extension, were right, this was her chance to get her life back and find a way to bring down the Mercers. She also knew that both Piper and Phoebe were more then capable of trying to help Paige without her, they had been doing it for the last three years after all without her help. But to leave when they were all un such dire straits, could she live with herself? Could she turn off the eldest sister mindset that had so dominated her life?

"Are you-are you sure?" Prue asked weakly, it wasn't though she even wanted to go, there would be other opportunities to get her life back, and with Paige dying…

"Prue, we're big girls now. You spent your whole life, quite literally actually, sacrificing yourself for this family. We can do without you for a little while. Go, we'll be fine. Actually, I have an idea that we might be able to try to help Paige, so go, see to the Mercers, use Phoebe's spell and get your life back. I mean it." Piper told her in no uncertain terms, and despite not wanting to go, to leave her sisters at this time, she did nod.

"Alright, but if you need me…" she said, and Phoebe hugged her.

"We'll call you straight away. Go honey, like Piper says, we need you good and proper, so go. The spells on the kitchen bunker by the way." She told her, and Prue gave her sisters a last tortured look before heading downstairs.

Piper did feel bad, she knew it was a complete anathema to Prue to abandon her family during a time of such dire crisis, but like she had said, there was little else they could do here, so they might as well try and achieve something while they waited for a particular breakthrough.

Which brought her to her spell.

"I was thinking, what if we could use the spell you used on me when I was captured by the Source?" Piper asked Phoebe, who looked at her curiously.

"To do what exactly?" she asked, and Piper looked musingly at Paige.

"Well, we know Paige is in trouble, and she keeps calling for Leo. What if we could adapt the spell, try and get into Paige's mind, see if we can help her hang on for now? And if it works, maybe we can rewrite it to reach Leo and Chris?" she asked, and Phoebe mulled it over, nodding to herself.

"Not a bad idea…wait, are you hoping that she might be calling for Leo because she knows where Leo is?" she asked, and Piper had to admit, the thought had crossed her mind at one point or another.

"Worth a shot isn't it? And it would be nice if we could give Prue some good news when she gets back too." She pointed out, and Phoebe nodded, there was no denying that.

"That's true, but maybe we can write a better version…after all sweetie, Paige is still dying, and if we cast a spell like that and the worst happens when we're in there, we're goosed too." She admitted grimly, and Piper blanched, yeah, that didn't sound like fun.

"Can it work?" Piper asked, and Phoebe nodded a little.

"I think so, and even if we can try and make something work it's better than nothing, I'll get the candles." She insisted, and Piper breathed an internal sigh of relief.

After all, it would probably take her a good half hour to get back on her feet now…

XX

Leo was very confused, which was putting it mildly. Paige had vanished right from his grip earlier, but after he had managed to give Damien the slip again, he had seen her materialise up ahead again, but by the time he had made his way to where she was standing, she had gone.

What the hell was going on with her?

He felt it had something to do with whatever weird world they were in, well that he was in and that Paige had been fading in and out of. Was it perhaps some twisted world of Rennek's design, some elaborate death trap to grind Leo down? No, that didn't seem right, but he figured that there had to be some insidious magic involved in all of this somewhere along the line.

Damien had vanished, and Leo was now in the cellar of a building that was a bar in the real world, which he fervently wished he could get back to. But how did he go about doing that? Did he push ahead, try and find some way to kill Damien? Was he the cause of this? Or was he perhaps just as trapped as Leo was? And what was he meant to do when Paige was randomly appearing and disappearing?

So, no weapons, no powers, no Paige and no colour, though he did have a murderous Darklighter on his tail. Beginning to think Chris was right and they were at the centre of someone's, as Phoebe would say, massive evil plan, he edged from his hiding place, deciding to at least stick around the area where he had first arrived.

Above him, Damien watched and silently started to shadow the Elder, the loud and obnoxious (some would say the demonic approach) hadn't worked, perhaps it was time to think more like a Darklighter, he thought with a smirk, and crept down the stairs of the building he was in as he pursued his prey.

XX

"You ruined everything for me Chris! Piper was perfect, a perfect woman for someone as perfect as me! And you just had to stick your nose in didn't you, you couldn't even die properly?" Dan roared, spittle flying into Chris' face, making him screw his nose up in revulsion.

Seriously, this guy had been ranting about how perfect he was for ages now, and other than punching Chris a few times, he hadn't even done anything to him, it was getting to the stage he would rather he would hurt him if only to give him something else to occupy his mind other than Dan's inane prattle, or the fact that he was once again trapped by this psycho and without his powers.

But that did beg the question though: how was Dan able to capture him? Well, not so much that, that was obvious, he had ambushed him, but how the hell had Dan, a mortal, one, managed to escape the asylum he was locked away in, and two, manged to get himself into a specially constructed small, magical free realm? Someone had clearly helped him, but who, and why?

And more importantly what was going on outside this small realm where he had been locked?

"What I don't get is this, how were you able to stop me? How did you survive?" Dan asked suddenly, and Chris felt a flicker of fear, he was most coherent when he was threatening Chris and sounded just like he had before he had attempted to kill him last time.

"Just lucky I guess." Chris replied, starting to struggle against his bonds again, Dan had that crazy, murderous glint in his eye again, and he really didn't want to be on the receiving end of that again, last time had been bad enough, and he still had to save Wyatt, save the future.

"See, you turned Piper against me, and somehow, managed to avoid dying when I killed you. See, it can't have been me that was the problem, after all, I'm perfect," he assured himself, his eyes lolling crazily, to which Chris barely managed to suppress a snort, "so the problem must be you. What are you?" he asked in a soft, murderous voice and Chris began to panic as Dan headed over to the table filled with nasty looking things that certainly didn't bode well for him.

"Hmm, the wise man said that this in particular would hurt you, wonder why?" Dan asked himself, and he picked an arrow up off the table, and Chris blanched, there was only one arrow that Dan could have been outfitted with that would cause him extreme pain, a Darklighter arrow, and that wasn't good at all.

"Look, Dan, this isn't, you don't want to, arrgh!" Chris screamed as Dan gave a gleeful, manic laugh as he plunged the arrow into Chris stomach, the poison blazing through Chris, and Dan chuckling in delight before he took grab of Chris longish hair, jerked his victim's head back and forced him to look him dead in the eyes.

"So Chris, what exactly are you , that you can trump someone as perfect as me?" he hissed, twisting the arrow in Chris' stomach and savouring Chris screams.

XX

Paige appeared back in the weird, black and white place again. This was weird, and quite frankly, getting kind of old. There was only so much monochrome a person could take. She also hadn't seen Leo recently, and that did worry her slightly.

It would help if she could figure out where and what this stupid world she kept fading in and out of was. And she was definitely in the midst of fading, because sometimes, she was back in the manor, struggling to regain consciousness, and she could hear snippets of conversation from Piper, Phoebe and Prue (less of Prue admittedly for a while, and there had also been a lot of shouting from Phoebe, from what she could gather she'd accidentally set the dangling ties of her top on fire while lighting candles, Piper had been laughing), but then at other times, she was here, in this weird, black and white, magicless world.

She felt cold, and she felt like there was a sort of tugging going on, like something wanted her to leave this place, but she was stubbornly clinging to this weird world, and to life back in the manor. She felt the weight of her failures recently, the loss of Glen, and she had to admit, anyone else would be tempted to give up, but she knew she couldn't, at the very least she had to get the demon that had murdered Glen, and besides, her family needed her. But see, that in and of itself was weird, yeah she'd been angry, but there had been a lot of thoughts running through her head before this that had just seemed out of place.

Though some, she had to admit, did have a good foundation in which to grow, she lamented miserably.

But she had to remain focused. Whatever was happening to her, she seemed to be fading in and out of life, which meant that this world had to be some sort of weird limbo of sorts, and that she was at death's door. But if Leo was also here, did that mean Leo was also dying?

This would be so much easier if she could talk to her sisters!

"Paige? Paige can you hear me?"

Paige suddenly stopped, sure she had heard Piper's voice, but before she could focus on her sister, her eye was drawn up ahead, as she saw that sneaky Darklighter who Piper had blown up before Leo had vanished, the same one who had shot at her before, edging along the alleyway as though he was trying to stay low. Well that wasn't remotely suspicious, she thought sarcastically to herself.

But for him to be doing that, and going away from her that had to mean that he was after Leo. Steeling herself, Paige took off in pursuit, the brief flicker that she had thought of as Piper's voice fading as she did so.

XX

"Damn it." Piper cursed, hammering her fist on the stand that should be housing the Book instead of being empty.

"Relax sweetie, we'll get there, maybe if we just tweak the spell a bit." Phoebe assured her, looking at the spell she had written and pondering how best to edit it to get them to talk to Paige.

"Well see if you can adjust how it works, I was going to where her mind was, but if she's moving around, wherever her consciousness is, it'll knock us off. I think I was nearly there, but I think she moved." She lamented, rubbing her forehead wearily.

Phoebe thought it over, if Paige's consciousness was moving around wherever the hell she was, that meant she was still fighting. What had been originally an attempt to make sure Paige didn't move on was now a quest to make sure their sister stayed with them, obviously didn't move on, but also to find wherever the hell she was, lost within her own mind, well at least wherever the hell her mind was currently, and the fact that her fading, near lifeless form kept calling for Leo gave Phoebe hope rather than anything else.

"I hope Prue's having more luck than we are." Piper said, looking out the window while Phoebe rewrote the spell and Paige struggled for her life.

XX

Prue couldn't believe she was doing this. Paige was dying, Leo and Chris were missing, the Book was stolen, and yet here she was, glamour in place, ready to try and make a move that would hopefully lead to the downfall of the Mercer crime family. She had quickly astralled up to scope out the place, and had seen a bodyguard waiting on the door to Mercer's apartment, vanishing again before the hulking brute had noticed.

This was crazy, she shouldn't be here, not with everything going on at home, and she felt wracked with guilt, but Piper and Phoebe had been insistent, and realistically, some part of her did know that there was nothing that they could do for the moment, so she might as well do something productive, but it was abhorrent to her, to leave her family alone at a time like this. But Andy was right, Piper was right. Her entire life she had spent looking after them, and when she had died, it had torn her apart, being separate from them, not being able to help them the way she wanted. But despite her own turmoil, Piper had thrived, had taken the lead, and now she was asking her big sister to let her keep doing this while she did something that was important to her, yes, but also for the whole family, and to trust her and Phoebe to look after Paige and fix that mess.

Which left Prue free to deal with Mercer. All the way over, she had been panicking, wondering if she looked good enough to hold his initial attention, wondering if her glamour would hold, if her plan would work. She had stayed in the taxi outside the apartment building for a good five minutes before the driver had asked if she was sure she wanted to get out there which had finally prompted her to make a move.

After the driver had driven away, she had taken the lip gloss from her bag and after a quick scan of the area, dared the spell she herself had written to help cover her tracks.

"Ancient power I have this plight

On this tumultuous night

Should anyone's touch this lip gloss

Make it result in consciousness and memory loss!"

A brief swirl of light had surrounded her lip gloss, which she then applied to her lips. She certainly didn't want to kiss him, but if it came down to that, that spell could well save her life. Now all she had to do was put aside her fears and anxieties and get it over with.

Entering the building, making sure her glamour was clearly in place, she got into the elevator, her heart pounding in her chest with fear and anxiety. Slipping the spell that Phoebe had written her from her purse (she had 'borrowed' it from Piper), she made sure to use her telekinesis to keep the doors closed before she recited the spell (after all, the Truth spell backfire a few years ago had made it clear that one should check one was alone before casting said spell).

"As one we mingle truth and lies

So I make this one compromise

To reach a justice not seen before

I now let these Wiccan words soar

To open secrets and reach new heights

To end the Mercer's victims plights

On this night all of me shall be blessed

And thus the Mercer crime family brought to rest!"

Cursing Phoebe slightly for the length of her spell, Prue slipped it into her purse again before thinking better of it and instead sticking it behind the lift's control panel, just in case they should search her purse upon entry. However, Prue did have to appreciate her sister's spell if nothing else, it was quite clever in what it intended to do she had to admit. Basically, Prue was now blessed to achieve her goals, it was now just down to her how she went about achieving it. Hoping that this would prove to be as easy as such a thing could be, she steeled herself as the lift arrived at Mercer's penthouse.

The bodyguard outside the door nodded at her as she left, and the nervousness she was projecting wasn't entirely put on, in fact if anything whatever calmness she felt was the true cover as her fear and anxiety were though the roof, one wrong move and she wouldn't leave the place alive, let alone anything else that could happen. The guard grunted at her, took her purse and flicked through it, but apparently satisfied, handed it back to her. Glad that she had hidden the spell, and making a mental note to take it out and dispose of it later to be safe, she braced herself as the bodyguard knocked on the door, waited for an answer, and gestured her in once he received one.

Located in Golden Gate Heights, Prue couldn't deny that being a crime boss did have some very nice perks. With the corner apartment of the building, Mercer had spectacular views of the bay, of the city and of the Golden Gate Bridge. Suitably impressed, she looked around and was reminded of the same, fine lifestyle Bane had had all those years ago. The apartment was well furnished, with nice, ambient lighting offsetting the look of the dinner table, draped in a red table cloth with two long stemmed candles in the centre of the table, a very nice looking (and pricey) bottle of red awaiting on the table. Prue could see marks of distinguished wealth, known from her time at Bucklands, dotted all around the apartment, including a Salvadore Dali.

"Ah good evening Fiona." Ryker Mercer, the leader of the entire Mercer crime family, said softly, emerging from a back room, a cavalier smile on his face as he came through with two glasses.

"G-good evening Mr Mercer." Prue said, quite unable to keep the natural fear out of her voice after all, this man was an entirely different type of evil than the sort she was used to, and he chuckled, waving her off.

"Please my dear, we're alone. Call me Ryker." He said with a flirtatious smile, pouring her a glass of red, which she accepted readily, and he raised his own filled glass to her.

"To tonight." He said respectfully, inclining his head as they clinked glasses.

"To tonight," Prue repeated, drinking a touch more than she ordinarily would have, "your apartment is beautiful." She commented, gesturing around the room, and he smiled.

"Thank you Fiona. You have an eye for taste. Come, I'll show you collection." He said, taking her by the arm and guiding her around the apartment.

Twenty minutes later, Mercer had her sitting at the dinner table, and was suitably impressed. After her first initial slip, in which she had identified the Salvador Dali, she had decided to roll with it and told him she had used to work in an auction house. Extremely impressed that she could identify so much of his collection, he told her that he clearly had her in the wrong place and could find a place much better suited for her talents, perhaps locating and verifying artefacts to add to his collection. Flattered despite herself, she had sat down and told Mercer a version of the truth, saying that she had used to work in an auction house (he had asked which one and she had had to think fast to remember the name of one of the ones she had dealt with while at Bucklands, so she told him one in Arizona that she remembered), and he was very impressed.

As he served dinner, a starter of scallops with pea puree, steak tartare for main and then a decadent chocolate mousse for pudding (she had to admit, he was a pretty damn good cook), the two of them had exchanged small talk, and despite herself, she actually found herself liking the guy. He was clearly well educated, intelligent and despite his line of work, he was quite respectful to her and was quite engaging during their conversation. He talked about his upbringing, and she had to respect and admire the way he had built up his criminal empire even if she disagreed with what he was doing with his life and his life's work, but thems the breaks she supposed. They discussed his life, hers, their knowledge of impressive collections, talked about expansions to his ones, he even touched upon the death of his beloved wife from pneumonia a few years before, leaving him as a single parent to Christopher. She had asked about his son, and he had admitted to being proud of the boy, but admitted he had focused on his businesses and deals at times when his son needed his father, and admitted fault on that, which was more than many men would have done. He did say that his distracted upbringing was part of the reason for his son's lout like behaviour the previous night.

Regardless of him being a crime boss, Prue found she did respect the man. He was obviously an extremely nasty piece of work, however their evening together had been pleasant, and she did have to admire his drive and ambition. However, he told her about at least one person who was made to disappear, and she seized on it to fortify herself, to remind herself of the sort of person she was actually dealing with at the moment.

"See that restaurant with the Chinese temple like roof?" he asked as they stood out on the balcony, a glass of wine in hand, and she had squint to see what he was indicating over the lights of the city, but she did eventually spot it.

"Yeah, it's new isn't it? Recently refitted?" she asked, having gone down to the shore to look for some more potion ingredients a few days before and having spotted it.

"Good eye. Yes, that's my newest venture, the Golden Portal. And tomorrow, I'll finally sign a deal on the dotted line." He said smugly, but Prue had stopped listening, a sudden brainwave burning through her with excitement.

A portal…a portal! That would explain why Leo had disappeared! After all, he was an Elder, one of the most powerful of beings in the world, and they didn't just up and disappear for no reason. Could that Darklighter that Piper have blown up somehow have managed to make Leo enter a portal? Or actually, now she thought about it, what if he actually was the portal? After all, she remembered one particularly demon she, Piper and Phoebe had dealt with once, a Sapper demon, which tricked you into killing it and then exploding in a violent explosion when it did in the attempt to kill its killer. What if the Darklighter had been similarly modified, and was actually the conduit for the portal? And then, if she was right, that would explain why Leo had suddenly vanished off the face of the earth, and why they could find no trace of him, because if he'd been thrown through a portal, then he would be unable to reach them anyway! And if she was right, chances were that Chris had also gone through a portal, and was also unable to reach them, it all fit!

"You're a genius!" she exclaimed ecstatically, and kissed his cheek in victory.

Mercer smiled and was about to say something else when he swayed comically, and too late, Prue realised what she had done and just managed to catch him before he collapsed to the ground. Cursing her forgetfulness that her lip gloss spell would do that, and taking a quick glance around to make sure no one was out on their own balcony who could have spotted her, she struggled inwards with him in her arms, and eventually, made her tired way to the couch where she laid him as gently as he could, as she didn't want him waking up.

After all, an accident or not, she might as well make use of her mistake.

With Mercer now sleeping soundly on the couch, Prue debated about her next move, and decided that regardless of everything else going on, discretion was the better part of valour. She took the open wine bottle and poured about half of the bottle down the sink, lamenting the loss of such a good wine and making a mental note to look for said bottle as it was very nice. Sticking the now mostly empty bottle back beside Mercer in the hopes that he would think that he had just overdid it, she then frowned as she considered her predicament. If she were something incriminating to defeat the entire Mercer crime family, where would she be?

A slight smile grew on her face as she looked around the room, it had been right in front of her the whole night. During their tour, Mercer had told her that the large picture above his fireplace, an all white canvas with a ten dollar bill in the middle, was the first dollar he had, acquired (see laundered) during his line of work. And as he was ruthless and smart, he was also very egotistical, which might just prove to be his undoing.

Confident that Mercer was still sound asleep, she moved the painting to the left, and was delighted to see that she was right, as there was a safe right behind it. So, if she were an egotistical, arrogant, smart, yet slightly paranoid crime boss, what would she keep in here?

Answer: a little something for a rainy day, a means of protection should someone unpleasant come calling, and of course, evidence, to hold over everyone in his organisation who may ever betray him. So, all she had to do now was get into the safe.

Keeping her voice lock, and considering the door to the safe which would require a passcode to unlock, she quickly formulated a spell:

"To stop the Mercer family causing strife

To make them all go away for life

Undo this lock so that I might find

Evidence to restore my peace of mind!"

To her delight, the safe swung open, and she could feel the excitement rising within her as she beheld the contents of the safe. She had been right, this must be what she needed. Inside was a picture of Mercer, his wife and his son in earlier, happier times, a file, which she briefly peaked in to see that it looked like he was blackmailing the District Attorney due to the vividness of the pictures, a dark, glinting gun, and a small, innocuous USB stick. Delighted with her night's work, Prue chanced a last look behind her to see Mercer still sleeping soundly, and wondered how best to do this. Yes, this was the home stretch so she might as well do it the old fashioned way.

"Take USB stick and file too,

And multiply them by two!"

To her delight, two copies of each item then appeared right beside the original items. Quickly extracting both the original files and the original USB stick, she hurried over to her bag and quickly rammed them in, zipping it up tight. She then returned to the safe, put her copies where they should be then closed the safe, moving the picture back to its original position and leaving it looking as untouched as when she had found it. Confident that her tracks were covered, she favoured Mercer with a slightly fond look, after all his statement led to the brainwave that may very well save her family, and thanks to that he had also allowed her to get everything that she needed to bring down him and his criminal empire once and for all.

Feeling slightly guilty, and grateful for all the help he had inadvertently given her, along with the nice meal he had made for her, she covered him with a blanket which was draped over another chair, and then quickly wrote him a nice note, thanking him for the evening, a lovely meal, and a regret that the wine had gotten to the two of them before they could see where the night could take them. Finishing her note off with a another thanks, a hope that they could do it again, and a hope to hear from him about getting a new job, she donned her bag and headed out.

Faking a drunken stumble as she left the apartment, the bodyguard catching her as she did so, she slurred her words as he glared at her.

"Fanks…tell him hesh great, and I'll see him-hic-tomorrow. Aww too mush wine!" she prattled, and the man rolled his eyes before shoving her away to the lift.

Keeping up the pretence (too much pretend drunken stumbling nearly resulted in her breaking her ankle as she nearly tripped in her heels (well, Piper's heels, it's not like she could get her own feet into them at the moment)), she left the apartment, occasionally stopping and staggering around as she got away from the apartment. She hailed a cab, and sobered up once inside, and had the driver take her to the nearest busy area. Flush with exhilaration, she once more assumed her drunken persona as she stumbled away from the taxi and into the Macy's that she had stopped outside, and headed for the bathroom. Thanking god for the small cluster of women who were all standing in front of the bathroom entrance, she slipped in, and once inside, upon being sure the coast was clear, dropped her glamour, and sat down in the stall, feeling her heart pounding in her mouth as she did so.

She had done it, she had the information she needed in order to stop the Mercers and get her life back, no more deferring the threat against Wyatt, Piper could move back to the manor, and she could get her life back at last.

Well, such as it was, with her sister dying, and her brother in law and nephew missing. But thanks to Mercer, she had a plan to deal with that too.

Returning to the wider shop once more as Prue Halliwell, she hurried outside for a cab, she had a crime gang to bring down and a family to save.

XX

Paige had made good progress, and had now outpaced Damien, and had very nearly caught up with Leo. All she needed to do was to get past this next block…yes, there he was!

Hurrying as fast as she could, she quickly ran up to him and grabbed him, clamping her hand over his mouth before dragging him down the alleyway. Freeing himself from her, he turned angrily, but relaxed when he saw it was her.

"Paige, where the hell did you disappear to?" he demanded, and she shrugged.

"Hey don't yell at me, I'm as clueless as you are. By the way, you know that the Darklighter is still following you right?" she asked, leading him back the way she had came in order to put some space in between them and their predator, and Leo sighed in annoyance.

"Damn it, I was hoping I'd given him the slip. So, still no idea where we are?" he asked in a low voice, keeping half an eye out for the Darklighter.

"No, but I do know where I keep disappearing to, it's like I keep trying to wake up back at the manor, I just can't, I think my body's too weak." She informed him, and his brow furrowed as he tried to think of the answer.

If Paige was fading back and forth to the manor, it stood to reason that he was the person who was the interloper here, perhaps he had somehow been sucked into whatever was going on with Paige, but it still wouldn't explain exactly how he had gotten here, he just knew Damien had to have something to do with it.

"Ok, so we just need to figure out a way to survive until…Paige, why are we stopping?" Leo asked, as she seemed to have ground to a halt, and she fixed him with a smile.

"It's Phoebe, she's speaking to me, and I can hear her. Now we can start trying to get out of this mess." She assured him and he broke into the first genuine smile he'd had all day.

XX

A bleary eyed Darryl opened the door, looking very bemused and sleepy that he had been summoned from his bed by the ringing of the doorbell.

"Prue?" he asked in disbelief, and she did grant him an apologetic glance.

"I'm sorry Darryl, I know it's late, but I'm on a tight schedule here, and besides, I'm too excited." She told him as she stood on his doorstep at one in the morning, and he blinked slowly, clearly still half asleep.

"What?" he asked, and she rolled her eyes, and then brought the evidence out of her bag.

"I've got it, what we need to stop the Mercers." She told him in a voice of suppressed triumph, and that certainly woke him up as he finally seemed to kick himself into high gear.

"Wait, what?" he asked excitedly, beckoning her in as Sheila and Andy started to come down the stairs.

"I think I've got what we need." She said breathlessly, and Darryl opened her files, quickly putting them away due to their sensitive nature, and took the USB stick off her and quickly ripped open his laptop, inserting the drive as the two of them waited anxiously for what was to come.

And a minute later, Darryl had to suppress a cheer of victory. She was right, this was everything that they needed and more to bring down the entire Mercer crime family once and for all.

"Prue, you did it!" he exclaimed in joy, and she smiled, clear exultation and relief on her face.

"I actually did it. Will this be good enough for Sheridan?" she asked, and he nodded, smiling broadly, the ramifications of the whole thing buzzing through his mind, they could end this, end the Mercers by this time tomorrow.

"I'd say so. You did it Prue, you can get your life back." He told her, wrapping her in a hug, and she returned it fiercely.

"Um, I'm very confused, what's going on and why couldn't it have waited until morning?" Sheila asked, sounding very nonplussed, and Prue then hugged her too.

"Sorry Sheila, like I say, I'm too excited and I'm in a hurry, it's been a bit of a day." She explained, and Andy finally ambled in, looking just as tired and sleep deprived as the other two.

"Is everything ok babe?" he asked, embracing her and she kissed his cheek.

Then promptly swore as he collapsed, sound asleep.

"Aww crap!" she cursed as both Sheila and Darryl ran forward, but she waved them off, Darryl looking at her in disbelief.

"You've killed him, in my house!" he cried, and she rolled her eyes.

"No I didn't, I forgot about my lip gloss that I enchanted, my bad. He'll be fine when he wakes up, just tell him I'm sorry." She said sheepishly, and Sheila started to laugh.

"Only you two could come back from the dead and then try and get yourself killed the same day. He'll definitely be fine?" she asked, and Prue nodded, still not quite believing she'd been so stupid as to knock her boyfriend out.

"Yes. So what now Darryl?" she asked, and he was also now chuckling.

"Now, we call Sheridan, let her know, and we go from there," he said, already dialling, and Prue raised a questioning eyebrow at him, "she called me at three in the morning the other day, this is payback…Sheridan, hi!"

Sheila helped Prue get a soundly sleeping Andy onto the couch, shaking her head in amusement.

"So what's going wrong?" she asked, clapping Prue's shoulder, and Prue rubbed her eyes.

"Oh same as usual, Paige is dying, Leo and Chris both missing, but I've got an idea to fix it all once I get home. Thank you for taking Andy in Sheila." She said softly, and Sheila smiled.

"It's nice that he's back. And it's nice to have you back too Prue." She told her, just as Darryl hung up the phone.

"Sheridan is extremely interested in how you got everything you got us, sorry Prue," he told her, and she sighed, but she had expected that, how she was going to explain that she would have to think about later, "but she says she'll meet with us all in the morning to discuss our next move, I'll call you." He told her, and she hugged him.

"Thanks Darryl. Right, I'm heading home, sorry for waking you but like I said, I was excited, and can you make sure Andy knows I'm sorry for knocking him out?" she asked, cheeks turning red as the two Morris' chuckled.

"Want me to drive you?" Darryl asked, and she shook her head.

"No, go back to bed, I'll see you in the morning. Thanks guys. Bye babe!" she called apologetically to a softly snoring Andy as she headed out to go and fix her family.

XX

"Piper, Phoebe!" Prue called from downstairs as the other two sisters worked tirelessly in the attic.

"Up here!" Piper called, her hand on the planchette of the spirit board, a look of confusion on her face while Phoebe sat in the mound of cushions beside her sister on the couch, holding Paige's hand as she communed with her sister.

Prue entered the attic ten minutes later, clearly having changed out of the clothes she had been wearing for her date and back into her leather jacket, black see through top and jeans. Tucking her long blond hair behind her ears, she looked hopefully at her sisters.

"Anything?" she asked without preamble, and Piper smiled.

"Well we have good news, and good news! Phoebe and I hit on the idea of trying to use the spirit board to contact Paige in case the spell didn't work, but we've instead been using it to try and get a clue about the Book. By the way, the inscription has changed slightly, it's still got what was written on it by mom, but there's more written on it now, it now also says 'and when there's four you'll be protected forever more'. Cool huh?" she asked, and Prue smiled, this whole timeline change was still taking some getting used to, but there was always going to be more and more little hints of Neena's influence on the timeline throughout their past, and this was just one example.

"That is cool. Did you get anything about the Book?" she asked, looking fondly at the spirit board which had started their journey as witches.

"Yep. It's been taken by a demon called Sirk," she explained, and Prue nodded, more info on their demonic murderer/thief could only be helpful, "but obviously without said Book we can't find out anymore about him. The board also keeps saying one and two, but I'm a bit flummoxed as to why." She admitted, looking in confusion at the board, and Prue grinned.

"Maybe it's trying to tell you he's a half demon?" she asked leadingly, and Piper's eyes widened in comprehension.

"Of course! See, that's why you're the big sister, or were, or, well I don't know I've lost track, but at least we know who has the Book, just not how to get it back yet." Piper summed up, and closed her eyes to use the planchette again.

"And your spell?" Prue asked hopefully, and Phoebe beckoned her closer to sit in the circle of candles and cushions she was sitting on beside Paige.

"We can speak to Paige, a damn fine piece of spell writing if I do say so myself." She told Prue, who felt a weight lift off her as she heard they could commune with their youngest member, and sat down beside Phoebe, taking her hand.

"Paige, can you hear me?" she asked, and felt a sense of relief as she heard Paige's voice, though it sounded like it was coming from the other side of a cave system, all sort of distant and echoey.

"Prue! How did you get on with the Mercers?" she asked as though shouting from afar, bless her, she was on the verge of death and still was more concerned by everyone else, and Prue grinned.

"I got what we needed, we can bring them down," she said, and Phoebe and Piper looked at her with delighted expressions, and Paige let out a tinny cheer, "but what about you honey?"

"I've found Leo, but we still don't know where we are. Our powers don't work, and everything's black and white, and we have a Darklighter chasing us." Paige explained from wherever her consciousness was speaking from, and Prue felt her stomach collapse in horror.

"We can't figure out where she is, so we can't even try and get her back that way." Phoebe explained, but Prue shook her head.

"You don't need to. She's in the Ghostly Plane." She told them, and Phoebe looked at her curiously.

"How on earth could you know that? Oh…," she gasped, seeing the look on Prue's face, "sorry honey I didn't think."

"It's ok. That makes sense though, as Paige is dying, she would be there, it's Leo being there that concerns me. Paige, have you seen any sign of Chris?" she asked, feeling as though she was on speakerphone.

"No. Phoebe told me he was missing too, but I've not seen him." She admitted, but Prue nodded.

"That's fine, it all ties into my theory." She told them, and she could feel Piper drill her with a look from behind.

"Theory? What theory?" she asked, and Prue turned slightly to look at Piper.

"Well, it was actually Mercer who gave me the idea, talking about portals. As Leo's an Elder, it must be quite difficult to get rid of him, and we know Leo isn't dead right? I'm thinking that whoever sent those Darklighters did something with that Damien guy in order to turn him into a living portal, so when you blew him up, you wound up blowing him and Leo to another world, where obviously Leo's powers don't work, which means that Damien has Leo right where he wants him." She explained, and both her sisters looked shocked as they considered the implications.

"Then that would mean Leo's a sitting duck unless we can get him out the Ghostly Plane!" Piper gasped, and Prue nodded.

"My thinking exactly, but all he needs to do is keep avoiding the Darklighter until we can get to him. Paige, are you guys close to where we fought the Darklighters?" she asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, we're not far, why?"

Prue allowed herself a genuine smile, they weren't out of this yet, and there was still scope to save the day.

"Ok sweetie, here's what I want you to do. You and Leo need to keep close to that alley, so that when we open the portal, Leo comes through it, see if you can shake the Darklighter if you can too. A portal should open there. But if a portal opens, especially if it's a big, white swirling one, and only you can see it…do NOT go into it, understand?" she ordered, and Phoebe squeezed her hand in alarm, realising what she was warning her sister about.

"Ok, so if I see a portal only I can see, I leg it?" Paige asked, sounding slightly terrified, also grasping the implication of Prue's warning.

"Yep, and even if the Angel of Death shows up, tell him today isn't a good day to die, and run like the wind. We need Leo to come through that portal to save him, that should get him out of that plane, and then he can save you. Ok?" she asked.

"Got it, want to hurry? This place is very boring, not at all suited to my lively personality." Paige asked, and both her older sisters smiled as they imagined her face.

"We'll get right on it. See you soon." Prue promised, dropping Phoebe's hand and the connection, then getting to her feet.

"So what do we do?" Piper asked, abandoning the spirit board.

"Well my theory is that Chris was also sucked into a portal too, it would explain why we haven't heard from him either. So, I'm going to go see Gideon, see if he can get us any information on portals. Do you think you could make a potion that would be able to force open a portal?" Prue asked, and Piper chewed her lip thoughtfully.

"I think so, I would need a proper recipe though, it's not exactly a potion we make a lot, but I can get started on a base!" she told her sister, heading to the kitchen in a hurry, while Prue turned to Phoebe.

"Pheebs, remember the spell you cast on those glasses to reveal the Source's form, back when you were looking for Paige? Reckon you can write us a similar one for seeing portals?" she asked, and Phoebe winked at her.

"Course I can, I'll get started right away. We're not done yet!" she said excitedly, and Prue nodded with a smile.

"Damn right we aren't, I'm heading to see Gideon, I won't be long and then…then the OG Power of Three will let those Darklighters know that it's unwise to piss off the Charmed Ones." She said with a dark excitement, and Phoebe grinned as Prue headed off.

XX

"Sir, I think this is getting too far out of hand, you must realise…" Sigmund protested, but Gideon, who was growing tired of his assistant's constant wittering, held up a hand to silence him, and he clapped Sigmund on the shoulder.

"I am aware of the less than savoury nature of some of the decisions we've been forced to make Sigmund. Do you think I wish to be doing this, working with scum like Barbas, the Triad? But you have to realise what is at stake, the entire future, perhaps all of creation, depends upon our course of action. If we don't act, the future, the world itself, could very well be lost. We must make the difficult decision my friend, for the greater good." Gideon told him, and Sigmund opened his mouth to protest once again however the two of them were distracted as Prue suddenly swept into the reading room.

"Hi Gideon, Sigmund, sorry to barge in so late." She said as she reached them, and Gideon smiled in welcome.

"Not at all my dear Prudence. How can I be of assistance? Sigmund and I were having trouble sleeping, so we figured we may as well sort out the reading room, you know how young minds seem reluctant to put things back where they found it. Is Paige alright?" he asked, and he discreetly noticed Sigmund look at him in shock, and Gideon cursed his carelessness, he hadn't told his assistant about the peril of the youngest sister for a reason.

Prue nodded, looking tired but determined.

"She's stubbornly clinging on, and we think we have a lead on how to get Leo and Chris back, which is actually why I'm here, do you know anything about portals?" she asked, and Gideon considered for a moment before remembering the particular book that would be most useful to them.

"Here you are, 'Professor Pattling Pendant's Professional Portfolio Pertaining to Portals, Posterns and Passages'…yes, he was rather fond of alliterative titles," he said dryly, correctly deciphering Prue's less than impressed look, "but that should tell you all you need to know, particularly under the chapter heading of 'Everything You Wanted to Know About Portals But Were Afraid to Ask'." He advised, and Prue smiled.

"Thanks Gideon, hopefully this will make you a genuine lifesaver, see you later!" she called, already on her way out with the book as she rushed for home, and Gideon could feel the angry, determined look on Sigmund's face drilling into him.

"Let us speak in my office Sigmund." He said quietly, it wouldn't do for a student to happen upon them during this discussion after all.

They entered Gideon's office, and Gideon sat at his desk, and gestured for Sigmund to begin, and while he did look terrified to be having this conversation, he jutted his chin out.

"Sir, I-I think this has gone on far too far, for far too long! I agreed with you that the baby could, could grow to be a threat, but your actions, they have made you even worse than the thing we're trying to stop! I mean, working with Barbas, Darklighters, Rennek, the Triad, having them resurrect…that demon, the thing with the genie, the spider, and having the Charmed Ones innocents get murdered, this-this is intolerable, it's gotten out of control! We agreed that the sisters themselves wouldn't be harmed, that innocents wouldn't be harmed, and the body count keeps rising, and now, now Paige is at death's door due to your actions! I know the Elders aren't thrilled that all four sisters now exist, but surely that isn't a bad thing, not really? And Leo missing, and Chris missing, the Book of Shadows stolen…this has gone far enough! Your orbs, they've changed colour, haven't you noticed? You've changed! I see that its for the greater good, this terrible thing that we must do to save the future, but your obsession, it's driving you away from good, from the greater good, and making you as bad as the thing we seek to prevent! I'm sorry sir, but I feel I must…I don't want to do this, but I feel I must inform the Charmed Ones." He said, and he turned to leave.

Gideon raised his hand, heart wrenching in pain, he had always looked upon Sigmund as a friend, but he didn't understand what was at stake, they had to do this, for the greater good, but to have to kill his best friend if only to make sure he didn't tell the sisters…

However, Sigmund had come to a stop, and was suddenly clutching his heart. He turned back to Gideon, his face white in terror, his eyes wide and terrified, and he started prattling in fear, backing up against the door.

"No, please, no, get me out of here, no I don't like, someone, help me, help me, help…!" Sigmund screamed before dropping to the floor, going still as what little hair he had turned white as his heart gave up, and he let out a last breath before he was gone.

"You didn't have to do that." Gideon growled as Barbas materialised beside him with a column of flame, the Demon of Fear grinning malignantly.

"Actually, yes I did, as he was going to go running to the witches and we can't have that now can we? He'd have given the game away, and you might even have let him, couldn't let that happen. Your fear was that you wouldn't be able to stop him, so I did it. Interesting mortal fear," he commented, grinning sadistically as he perceived Sigmund's body, "being pecked to death by ducks. I love it when they're weird ones."

Gideon sent the body of his best friend one last, regretful look before he made it vanish with a gesture. He'd had to lower the wards against demons to allow Barbas to work his magic with Piper, and it sickened him that he was able to do something like this, within his school, even if he was here at the headmaster's invitation.

"What do you want?" Gideon snarled, and Barbas smirked.

"Well, just so you know, the Book of Shadows might have been stolen, but we can't get it to open. Any bright ideas?"

Gideon looked at the site where Sigmund's body had been, hearing his friend's words echo in his head. All his points were valid. But no, this was for the greater good.

He didn't have a choice, Wyatt had to be destroyed.

For the greater good.

XX

Armed with the knowledge furnished by Gideon, Piper had been able to complete the potion to break open the portals that had been used to take the boys, and Phoebe had cast a spell on a pair of Piper's sunglasses in order to identify the portals when they found them. Now they were back at the alley, having made it in record time now that Prue knew the way she would have taken before her death was blocked off, and due to there being no traffic on the roads at this time of the morning and prepared to battle the Darklighters.

"What about Paige?" Phoebe asked as Piper cast a protective spell on the car, making a mental note to take it off later.

"We'll leave her here, we can't take the risk," she told her sister, then she looked at Prue who was glaring down the alley, "how do you know there'll be Darklighters again?"

Prue gave her a humourless smile.

"As Damien didn't immediately reappear, they'll all be panicking, waiting for him to show up, and it's been hours since we were last here. They'll be looking for him. Trust me." She assured them, as Phoebe looked at Paige, struggling to breathe on the back seat.

"I don't think we have long left." She said worriedly, and Prue and Piper both looked at their fading sister before nodding.

"Then we better hurry. Let's go." Prue said, and the three original Charmed Ones swept down the alleyway, Prue's blond hair and leather clad form in the lead, Piper following behind her in a red jacket, black top and a long maternity skirt, her long brown hair with slight highlights stirring in the wind, and Phoebe at the rear, clad in a white suede coat, her hair lightly messed up, and wearing a cream tank top with jeans.

The three then entered the square in the middle, and found Prue was right, as over twenty or so Darklighters turned to look at them in shock.

"The witches!" Damien's deputy spluttered, and Prue grinned.

"Yeah, the witches." She agreed.

"The Charmed Ones actually." Phoebe added with a confident smile playing on her lips.

"And you pissed us off. Shall we ladies?" Piper asked with dark satisfaction, and then the sounds of all out magical war tore apart the predawn air.

XX

"Leo!" Paige cried as an arrow shot towards them, plunging into the wall of the alleyway where the battle had taken place the day before.

Leo rolled to the ground, coming up to see Damien approaching them both, an unhinged look on his face as he progressed towards him.

"Just die already would you?" the Darklighter spat, firing another arrow down the alley which just missed the two of them.

They needed to hold him off till the girls took down the Darklighters that Prue was convinced were guarding the portal, waiting for their boss' return. They needed to hold out until the others opened the portal to allow Leo back through, and then once through he could go and save Paige.

"I'm afraid it is time Paige." A voice said, and Paige felt herself go cold, and Leo turned to look at this newcomer in fear, and though he couldn't see the portal that he knew must be there, he knew what the newcomer's presence meant.

The man was dressed in a long black coat with a black jumper, and had auburn shoulder length hair. He extended a hand towards Paige, just as a white portal opened in the spot behind him, exactly where Paige had fallen when she was shot before.

"Who are you?" Paige asked, her voice coming out in a terrified squeak.

"He's the Angel of Death." Leo informed her, before another arrow shot down the alley, missing Leo.

It did however shoot right through the chest of Death, who looked down at the instantly repairing hole made in his chest before glowering at Damien, who did look vaguely apologetic.

"Well that was rather rude," Death said in his grim, cold voice, and Damien looked terrified as Death held his gaze slightly longer than was necessary before turning his gaze to Paige, "as I was saying Paige, I'm afraid that it is time. Come with me."

Paige shook her head defiantly, already backing away.

"No, no way. My sisters will save me, I just need to hold on a little longer. And to paraphrase Worf in First Contact, today is not a good day to die!" she cried, turned and ran, shouldering Damien out the way on the way past as he was still frozen in fear from seeing the Angel of Death, and she ran as far and fast as she could, away from the white portal, and the attempts of Death to take her on.

Death sighed as Leo charged down at Damien, punching the Darklighter in the face and knocking him to the ground as he tried to recover from Paige tackling him, his crossbow flying from his grip. Grinning, Leo grabbed it and threw the crossbow with all his might, and even though he couldn't see it, he managed to throw the crossbow right through the portal that had been opened to take Paige on.

"Really?" Death asked, mildly irritated as Leo then began to pummel the Darklighter, "why does the Halliwell family always make things difficult? It was bad enough taking their grandmother, the names she called me, my self-worth totally destroyed…" Death muttered as he slowly began to walk after Paige, confident that she wouldn't elude him for long.

XX

Chris knew he didn't have long left. It seemed Dan wasn't that interested in torturing him for information, he just liked causing him pain the sadistic, insane bastard. Well at the very least he had stopped asking him questions a while ago, now he just torturing him for the hell of it.

Chris felt like crap, in Dan's inexpert hands, the venom from the Darklighter arrow wasn't fatal yet, but it was building up in his system to near fatal levels. He felt like he was burning, it was a struggle to stay awake, his every nerve was on fire, his whole body was shaking and he felt nauseous as hell.

Dan then grabbed Chris' sweat slicked hair and jerked his head back, glaring down at him imperiously.

"So, how then? How can you beat someone as perfect as me?" he growled, pushing Chris sweat slicked hair back from his face, and despite his watering eyes, and imminent death, Chris rose his chin defiantly to look Dan right in his crazy, unbalanced eyes.

"Because I'm not a batshit crazy, childish, abusive son of a bitch like you. Go to hell." He hissed weakly, yet still managed to muster the defiance required to spit in Dan's face.

Dan spluttered in disgust, wiping Chris' spit off his face before punching him in the face, panting heavily as he enjoyed savouring Chris' pain.

"You'll pay for that boy. No one, I mean no one, disrespects me. WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?" Dan roared and seized Chris neck and began throttling his defenceless victim, roaring as he did so, Chris gasping and gurgling for air, trying to kick his legs or move his arms, trying anything to save himself , his eyes rolling in his head as he fought for his life.

XX

Prue sent a massive, pulsing telekinetic wave onto the rafters of the first building, the constant stream of her telekinetic wave disintegrating four Darklighters and the arrows they had fired at them as she slowly waved her arm in front of them, savouring their screams of terror. Her astral form then showed up behind two more, drop kicking them to the ground before taking one of their crossbows and firing a bolt into its defenceless owner and his companion.

Piper blew up five in rapid succession with her blasting power, then as one gave a triumphant, panic filled scream, he fired an arrow right for her pregnant belly. Bored, Piper gestured, slowing the arrow hurtling towards her down to a crawl and sidestepping it, before blowing apart the disbelieving Darklighter who had fired it. Curious as to what else she could do, she watched as one Darklighter loaded an arrow and made another gesture. This one's hands suddenly flew like lightning as he loaded his bolt and fired it. However, as the bolt was loaded yet his body was in the wrong place, as that was still several seconds behind his weapon, he fired long before he should have, and his bolt plunged through that of his neighbour who vanished with a scream.

Phoebe leapt up into the air with her levitation, and was now incorporating it fully into her martial arts, moving like a ninja as she leapt vast differences, ran along walls and dropped behind enemies. Twirling through the air, she crashed her feet into the chest of one Darklighter, sending him plummeting from the building before she landed catlike, her foot lancing out and kicking his wingman off the side of the building to the street below as well. She then gestured, the terror of all the panicking Darklighters surging around her as she took it from them, and with a wicked grin, reflected it back tenfold, the remaining numbers screaming in abject terror. Two turned their weapons on each other in fright, vanquishing each other, while three orbed out to safety. She then conjured the hatred she felt for these evil doers, and channelled that hatred into her hands, and two beams of red energy blasted from her hands, disintegrating another two with her attack. Pleased, Phoebe was just checking the number of enemies remaining when two Darklighters on the level above her fired their bolts right at Prue's back, as Prue blasted one Darklighter into a wall with such force he disintegrated.

"PRUE!" Phoebe screamed as the arrows whistled towards her, however, without even turning, without even reacting, Prue somehow managed to get the arrows to stop in mid-air. They then turned around and were sent hurtling back into their owners who screamed in disbelief as they too were vanquished.

Relieved that her sister was safe, though slightly resenting her growing grasp of her new psychokinesis ability, Phoebe leapt down onto one of the few remaining Darklighters, and with a slight gesture with her arm, used his anger, hatred and fear to consume and destroy him. Piper slowed two down to a glacial pace before blowing them both up, and Prue used one last wave to destroy another three. Only two Darklighters remained, and with a little empathic nudge from Phoebe, they both screamed in mindless terror and fled, leaving the predawn air stinking of sulphur and smoke, and the sweet taste of victory.

"Well, that'll teach them. That was fun, not going to lie." Piper said, fishing the portal potions she had made out of her pockets, and Prue nodded, smirking.

"Yeah, and I'm not going to lie, it was kind of awesome, the original Charmed Ones kicking ass so efficiently, but it's not as fun without Paige. She's going to be livid we didn't leave her any." She commented, fishing in her own pocket for the sunglasses that Phoebe had enchanted.

"Yeah, well, the sooner we fix this the sooner we can all go vanquishing together again. Though I have to admit, I'm loving all these new power advancements we've been getting from being the Power of Four." Phoebe said excitedly, as Piper handed her a potion.

"Speaking of, let's put it back together." Her older sister said, as Prue looked up and down the alley, a smug smirk on her face, the sunglasses looking a bit out of place when the sun wasn't even up yet.

"Oh yeah, love it when I'm right. Pheebs, the biggest one, the stable one that I'm assuming is the one to the Ghostly Plane, to your left a bit, no up a bit, down a bit, no up a bit, stop, fire! Piper, the small one that seems to be moving on an axis, I'm assuming that's where Chris is, right, now left, right, come on, it's not moving that fast! Yes, there, fire away!"

As this chapter was far bigger than I thought it would be, ill put my notes in the second half!