Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed. If I did, I would be publishing this and making money from it! This is purely a plot idea in my head and I do not intend to make any money from it.

AN: Okay. So now that I've made the lawyers happy…On with the story!! Please read and review! Lexi (my muse) really lives for getting reviews

Chapter 9.

Battle Prep

The Daughters all fought down the feeling of panic that rose in their chests at the news that the men in their lives had been kidnapped.

Kesia was the first to react. "That's it," she said with venom in her voice. "I'm done playing. I don't care if it's the last thing that I do, I will destroy him. David and I were talking about marriage and if that evil demon thinks that by kidnapping him he can control me, he's got another thing coming."

The rest of the Daughters nodded in agreement. Kai took up the thread. "This ends now. We all need to sit together and see if between all of us we can remember what Mother was telling us."

The women quickly sat back down and slowly began to talk.

Kesia looked at her sisters. "I remember Mother saying something about how the Source was a lot like her. One demon chosen to rule over the darkness, to keep balance. I know for a fact that she told us that the Light could not survive without the Dark and vice versa."

Piper nodded in her agreement. "I agree with that. It's like yen and yang. One can't survive without the other.

Phoebe bit her lip in thought. "Okay. So if the Source is like Gaia in some regards, doesn't that mean that he is not immortal? Wouldn't he have the same lifespan as Gaia?"

Kai remembered something. "Actually, no. He is not supposed to survive as long as Gaia. He lives for a while, but his lifespan is actually in the hundreds instead of the thousands of years."

Paige looked at them. "So how is Nen the Source? Should he not have died thousands of years ago?"

Kansas looked at her, her face a picture of concentration as she fought to recall the fragment of memory that was teasing her. "He should have…Damn. Mother told us why he didn't. I can feel it on the tip of my tongue. It had something to do with her." Kansas' eyes became big as the realization dawned on her. "Oh, I remember! He somehow made it so that when the previous Gaia gave Mother the spell to extend her life, he got the benefit of it. He is drawing his power from her."

Kim made a noise of surprise. "Wasn't there a rhyme that she told us? Water to water, breath to breath. Light and Dark tied to the death. Live in peace bitter friends, Earth and demon will meet their end."

Keahi nodded. "You're right. So obviously, he is tied to Mother somehow, but he can't access her power. Gods know that he tried. Isn't that why he killed Mother's sisters? He was trying to shake her into losing control. She obviously knew about the bond. Didn't she say something about how if her sisters had not been killed, she would have seen if one of the other sisters could have taken her place. But he took that choice away from her. It only made her resolve stronger."

Piper looked at them. "Okay. Question. How did he tie himself to Gaia?" The women looked at her with confusion. "If we can find out how he tied himself, couldn't we undo that tie?"

Phoebe jumped up. "Wait. Does this mean that if we kill the Source then we kill Gaia?"

Keahi got a contemplative look on her face. "Not exactly. The Earth is a strong Mistress. The Earth will not allow Gaia to die until she transfers her powers. Mother told me that when she took control of the power, the original Gaia lived out her life in peace. If we kill the Source before breaking his connection with Mother, then once she transfers her power, she will die."

"Oh," Phoebe said. "Then let's find that connection. How do we do that?"

Kansas looked at her. "I have no idea."

Leo had been watching the discussion, working the problem out in his head. A thought occurred to him and he cleared his throat. "I may have an idea." The women turned to look at him. "Phoebe. You and Keahi have the power of premonition. Is that not part of time? Is there someway you can see the past and not the future?"

Kim looked at her sisters. "What about that spell that Mother taught us? The one that allows us to go back in time as observers only. It seems like she has given us all the tools to solve this with, we just need to do it."

Kesia nodded. "Of course! Why didn't I think about that? Now if we can only remember the spell."

Keahi giggled. "We won't have to remember it. I brought the book that she showed us with me. I'll go get it." With that, she turned and ran up the stairs to the room that she was sharing with Phoebe.

When Keahi got back down, she discovered that the furniture had been moved again. She sat down on the couch and began to flip through the large book. "Ah-ha! Here it is. Okay. All of us need to be present to do this." She looked down at the pentagram laid out on the floor. "Piper, Phoebe and Paige. You need to stand in the middle of the pentagram. It only takes us to actually say the spell." She quickly wrote the spell down on five slips of paper and hand one to each of her sister.

"Father Time hear our plea.

Take us back so we can see.

The time in which the bond was forged.

The bond in which evil has gorged.

Earth to Earth, sea to sea.

As we will it, so mote it be."

The women felt the air shimmering around them as their hair whipped their faces. A white fog surrounded them. As the fog cleared, the room turned into a chamber in one of the pyramids. They looked at each other and nodded. Slowly they walked up to one of the demons present, but he did not react to their presence. Keahi took a breath and whispered right into his ear, "Hello?" The demon still did not react. She turned and smiled. "Okay. So we can see and hear them, but they can't see or hear us. Good."

Piper smiled. "This is a great spell." She turned at the sound of a door opening. In walked Nen, before he had become the Source.

Nen looked at the demons in the lair. "Is everything ready?"

One of the looked at him. 'Yes, My Lord. The potion has been brewed according to your specifications, including the blood of the Daughter of Gaia."

"Good. It's the blood that is important. Without that, this would not work." Nen turned to look around the chamber. "Where is the seer? I need her here now."

"I am right here, My Lord. Or should I say, the Source of all Darkness. The event is about to occur. Ingest the potion as soon as she becomes Gaia and her life force and yours will be connected for eternity. I must warn you, My Lord. The bond can only be broken if either of you are to die. For you, a demon, death would be instantaneous. For her, it will not. The Earth will not allow her to die without an heir."

"So I live as long as she does, but if I am killed, she is not affected?"

"Correct. If you want to inherit her power when she chooses her heir, then you must drink the counter potion before her death."

"What counter potion? You never mentioned that."

The seer looked at him. "Simple, My Lord. You will need one Eye of Newt, five dragon scales, four crushed lizard bones ground into a fine dust and her blood. Let the first three ingredients simmer for a day, then just add her blood and ingest the potion. That will break the bond and allow you to kill her without repercussions."

Nen nodded. "Are you sure?"

She bowed deferentially. "Of course, My Lord. I am never wrong."

Nen turned his back to her and filled gold and precious stone incrusted goblet with the simmering potion. He looked back at the seer, who would tell him when he should drink the foul drink.

She nodded to him and went into a trance. "The ceremony is beginning." She waited patiently, while the eight women watched on in fascination. Each of them was mentally trying to calculate the ceremony in her head.

The seer opened her eyes. "Now, My Lord. Drink the potion, now."

Nen did as he was told and grimaced as he swallowed. When he was done, he looked at the seer. "That's it? I don't feel any different."

She smiled. "That's the point. If you were to feel different, she would be able to tell during these first few minutes."

Nen smiled evilly. "Good. Now, I believe it's time to kill the other Daughters, leaving her with no support." He turned quickly and began to give orders to the other demons.

The eight women looked at each other and decided that it was time to return to their time period. They linked hands and were soon standing back in the living room of the manor.

"Well," Piper said. "That was certainly interesting. I wonder whatever happened to that seer. If she were still alive, I think that I would just have to destroy her."

"You'd have to stand in line," growled Kesia. "I wanted to kill her right there!"

Keahi laughed. "I can almost guarantee you that Nen killed her soon afterwards. She was the only one that knew how to break the spell. Do you really think that he would leave her around as a liability?"

Paige laughed. "Oh, I agree! He probably incinerated her as soon as they were alone." She turned to them. "You do realize that we now know the counter potion and can brew it ourselves, right?"

Kim smiled. "You bet. I memorized the ingredient list. The only thing that we need is Mother's blood. I'm willing to bet that Kronos would bring some down for us."

Kai nodded. "I'll call him and see if he will. Why don't you guys work on a spell to kill Nen with while I do that?" She turned and left the room, while Paige and Phoebe put the furniture back in the proper places.

Once the furniture was back to normal, the others waited for Kai to join them. They turned as they heard her light footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Kronos agreed and he brought me this vile," she said, extending her hand towards Kim, who was holding the other ingredients. "Here you go. Mother sends her regards and says that she is relieved that we figured it out. She said that she would have told us, but with all the rules in place she wasn't certain that it would be permitted."

Kim took the vile of blood and sighed in her relief. "I'll get to work on the potion right now. The sooner we have it completed, the sooner will can kill him."

The rest of the women nodded to her as she left the room.

Piper resumed control of the situation. "Now we need to come up with a spell to defeat him. We also need to devise a solution to how we get him to ingest the potion. I can't imagine that he would ever willing drink anything one of us gave him."

Kansas thought for a moment. "I have an idea. It might be stupid, but it might work."

Kesia looked at her. "Well, no idea is stupid, so go on. Tell us."

Kansas drew in a breath. "What if the demon that we have captive happened to get free. With the knowledge that we were creating a powerful potion to protect us from Nen. Something that would grant the protection of Mother Earth to us mortals." She smiled sardonically. "Serve him right. We could also manage to plant the idea of where we wanted me him on the battlefield."

Phoebe got were she was going with her drift. "Oh! I see. Plant the information, but in a way to guarantee that he would want to use the protection. Kesia, Paige? Did you guys find a good spot for the battle?"

Paige nodded. "Yes. Inyo National Forest. It's in Eastern California, close to the Nevada border. It's got over half a million acres of land. It would be easier to set up the protections there since there are a lot of acres to cover."

Piper nodded. "I like both ideas. Kesia and Paige. Why don't both of you go and pick out the battle site now. Go ahead and put up the protections. That should give us enough time to make sure that all the innocents are clear from that area." She turned to Keahi as the other two nodded their agreement and left. "Keahi, why don't you figure out a way to let the demon get free and somehow overhear our plans? The rest of us will work on the spell to destroy Nen once and for all."

Keahi bobbed her head. "It will take some doing, but I might be able to manage to convince him that he is responsible for breaking the shields. It might make us look weak, but then they will underestimate us. Good plan. I like that. Let me go see if there is anything in the books I brought that can help me. I'll have to be careful." With that, she turned and quickly ran up the stairs to her room.

The four remaining women looked at each other. Piper grabbed some paper. "So, what should this be? It's going to need to be a very powerful spell and more than likely all of us will have to say it to destroy him."

Kai looked thoughtful. "What about calling on the power of Gaia? It's something that any magical being can do and something that he probably would not have thought of."

Phoebe nodded. "That sounds like a place to start. Why don't we chase that particular hare to see if we can make something of it?"

The other women nodded and silently began to form some sort of spell to bring the destruction of the beast.

(Keahi and Phoebe's room)

Keahi sat on the bed and began to flip through the pages in frustration. She knew that she could just cancel the dampening field, but then the demon would realize that something was up. She also wanted someway to convince Nen to bring his hostages along with him, so that the team would not be split up in rescuing them as well. She sighed in frustration as she through the book that she was looking at onto the bed. That was no help.

She picked up the next book and began to leaf through it. As her eyes scanned the pages, she let her mind wander, so that she could work out the problem in her head. She was deep into her thoughts when she glanced down at the page and saw a spell to grant the caster invisibility. Huh. I think I could work with that. That way I could see what he was doing and make the shields react accordingly. Now how would I make sure that he got Nen to bring the guys?

While she was letting her mind roam over that problem, she copied the spell down. Sighing, she decided to go see how the others were doing.

When she walked into the bedroom, she noticed that Piper, Phoebe, Kai and Kansas were talking excitedly. She peered at them and asked, "What's going on?"

Kai looked up. "Hey! We think that we have the spell to finish of Nen. We were just going over it to make sure that it would work. How'd it go with you?"

Keahi raised her eyebrows. "Well, I think that I found a way to convince the demon that he got free under his own power, but I can't figure out how to make sure that he will tell Nen to bring the guys to the battle site."

Phoebe looked at her. "That was something that we didn't think of. I just assumed that he would. I mean, it makes sense for him to do that. If he does, then that means that we have to split up and try to rescue them first."

Kansas looked worried. "If we have to play rescuers and try to kill Nen, then we will probably lose. I don't want to lose Mark. I know that he is the one for me. I've been trying to work up the courage to tell him that I am a witch."

Piper looked at the Daughters. She sat for a moment in contemplation. "What if…" she started, but then stopped.

Keahi looked at her. "What if what?"

Piper furrowed her brow. "We've split into pairs. What if one of the pairs was in charge of rescuing all the guys? That way six would be fighting the Source and the inevitable demons that will be helping him. Once we free one of them, we can have Leo orb them back here so that they will be safe. We know that demons can't enter here anymore."

The rest of the women looked at her. "I think that it's a good idea," said Kai. "It's a smart division of our forces. The question is…Who will be in charge of that?"

All of them sat in thought. "Honestly," said Kansas. "I think that it should be you, Piper and Phoebe."

"Why?" asked Phoebe.

Kansas cocked her head. "Realistically? The demons surrounding Nen will more than likely be upper level demons. Which means that they will be partially immune to your power, Piper. While, I believe, the demons guarding the guys will be lower level demons. You can freeze them and then once all of them are safe, you guys can rejoin the fight."

Piper, who had bristled at the thought of being out of the fight with the Source, carefully considered what Kansas was saying. "Damn. You're right Kansas. That really would be the best division of labor. I'm up for it. What about you, Phoebe?"

Phoebe nodded her assent and was just about to say something when Paige and Kesia orbed back in.

"The ward off and shields are set," said Kesia. "I'm kinda tired right now. That took more out of me than I had imagined."

Keahi smiled. "Why?"

Kesia rolled her eyes. "It's because I had to set the shield to allow the demons to come into the combat zone, but prevent them from leaving. I must say, that is hard to do! How have things been here?"

Piper answered her. "Well, we have the spell to destroy the Source. Kim is working on the potion. Keahi thinks she has found away to let the demon escape without him knowing that we are letting him escape. And…we have figured out how to divide up so that we can both save the guys and destroy the Source."

"Wow," Paige exclaimed with a whistle. "You guys have been busy! What about planning to planting where we want the battle to take place?"

Keahi shrugged her shoulders. "That one I'm having a bit of trouble with. I'm not sure how to give him the information with him knowing that I am giving him the info."

"That's easy," said Kim from the doorway. She walked into the room, wiping her hands off on a towel. "We make the plans and walk by the open door to the attic while discussing them. The Source isn't going to want a lot of collateral damage, either. If there are a lot of people around, then he can't truly use all of his powers. Too many distractions."

The seven other women turned to stare at Kim. She looked back at them. "What? Tell me I'm wrong here."

Paige laughed. "No. You're not wrong, but we just can't believe that we never thought of that!"

Kim smiled. "Oh. Okay. The potion will be ready tomorrow. I believe, and this is just a belief, that it should be potent for forty-eight hours after it gets finished brewing."

Piper nodded her head. "Okay. So what we need to do, is finalize our plans, then sometime tomorrow, we'll walk by the room and discuss this new potion we just brewed that will give us immunity to the Source's powers by giving us the protection of Mother Earth. What if we let the demon go before we do this? We can walk by the room and wet his appetite, but make the information so tempting that he has to stick around to hear it all?"

Keahi nodded. "That's good. I can communicate with my sister's telepathically and let them know when the demon is free. That way, he won't actually hear any of our real plans."

"That sounds like a great idea. We have to make sure that the potion is ready before he gets free," Kim said.

Everyone else agreed and sat back down to finalize their plans.

(2 days later)

"Keahi," Kim called.

Keahi walked into the kitchen. "Yes, sister-mine?"

Kim smiled. "The potion is ready."

Keahi nodded. "Okay. Phase One complete. Now let's move on to Phase Two."

They both moved on to let everyone else know that potion was ready. Once they completed that, Keahi moved to her room. Taking the book out of her bag she muttered the invisibility spell to herself. Once invisible, she contacted Kesia through telepathy. :Kesia? I'm ready. Come outside of Phoebe's room. I'll follow you into the attic and then stay there once you leave.:

:Of course.: came her reply. :I'm almost there.:

Kesia moved outside the door and heard Keahi say, "Okay. Let's do this."

Kesia just nodded and continued onto her path to the attic. She opened the door and did not even spare the demon a look as she walked to a box and pulled a couple of items out. She turned around just as quietly and left the room, leaving the door partially open.

Maliki noticed this and grinned gleefully. He felt like he had gotten somewhere with trying to break the protections and conjured an energy ball. He had noticed the day before that the dampening field was weakening. He began to throw energy balls at the shield surrounding him until he felt them break.

Just as they broke, he heard footsteps outside of the attic.

"So, the potion is complete?" asked Piper.

"Yes," replied Kim. "It will give us immunity from magical attacks by invoking the protection of the Earth. The Source will not know what hit him!"

"Good," said Piper. "Then we can draw The Source to the Inyo National Forest tomorrow and finally put an end to him."

"I agree. With the eight of us…" Kim's voice faded as they got farther away from the room.

Maliki thought for a moment. I must steal this potion for The Source. He will reward me favorably for giving him the power of protection from the Earth itself. He smiled evilly and began to make his way out of the attic, not knowing that Keahi was watching every move with a satisfied smile on her face.

AN: Updated 9/18/07 for grammatical and spelling errors.