A/N: I loved, repeat loved writing this chapter! Even before she had children, Piper always had an amazing maternal capacity, and it's the most fascinating and fun part of her character to write about. Hope y'all enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Demons in and Out

Yet another demon screeched in agony as Natalia's violet lightning struck him in the chest. However, this distraction gave his partner (a thorn demon) an opening to the sorceress for her poisonous darts.

"Thorns!" Paige cried, orbing the projectiles in the opposite direction. They planted themselves directly into the thorn demon's throat, instantly vanquishing her with her own poison.

Natalia nodded, silently grateful for the save. "Seems almost bitter-sweet, killing The Heir's competition. It's almost like we're doing his work for him."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean these demons are from another faction. That makes three if you count the warlocks I mobilized."

Paige rolled her eyes. "I see your point, but lighten up a little. Come on, we saved the innocent before he even got here."

"Am I supposed to care?" Natalia asked sardonically.

"Oh… right, I keep forgetting you're a demon. Still doesn't make sense that you're helping us."

"I don't want The Heir to take power."

"That can only count for so much, you know. You've helped us before, and that was way before The Heir even showed up. I still have a feeling there's some sort of deeper reason."

Natalia only shrugged. "I hate talking to social workers."

"Ex-social worker." Paige sighed. "I still say this is fishy."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean three factions fighting for the same territory. That's not a pattern, it's a conspiracy. Now that I've seen them, they're not just determined to get it, they're desperate, and for a hotel."

"What are you getting at?"

Paige didn't answer. She just grabbed the sorceress by the arm to start the orb. "Come on, I'm gonna need a map."

"Piper?" Phoebe called, climbing the staircase to the attic. To her dismay she found her sister slumped over the small table in the attic, still in the clothes she had been wearing last night. Several maps of the country were spread out in front of her, the scrying crystal was dangling from its chain in her hand. Phoebe roused her and Piper awoke with a start.

"It's okay honey, it's just me. Have you been up all night?"

"Umm…" Piper rubbed her eyes, "Yeah. I've been scrying for Carey all over the country, but I haven't gotten any reads on her yet."

Phoebe pulled the map away and kneeled next to her sister. "Well… did it occur to you that there might not be anything to find?"

"No!" Piper barked, shaking an angry finger at her younger sister. "Don't start with that. We are going to find her, and after we blast the sorry wack-job that's trying to kill us, Zack and Cody will have their mom back."

"But--"

"But nothing, Phoebe! We don't even know for sure if they got her."

"Kurt said she never came back."

"That could mean anything."

Phoebe cast her eyes down, hating that her sister was choosing now to be an optimist. "Okay, if you say so. But if we don't make it in time—"

"I told you, that's not an option, not for them. We didn't have our mom to help us through all this, and it was hell going it alone. If we can stop them from going through the same thing, then dammit, we are going to do it!" Piper snatched the map away from her sister and began to scry again, leaving no room for argument.

Phoebe sighed and got to her feet. She moved towards the back of the attic where they kept some of the potion ingredients—the more dangerous ones. "Piper, have you seen the wraith essence?"

Piper almost dropped the crystal. She turned her head enough to see the degree of ingredients Phoebe was gathering. The last time they'd used some of those had been…

"Is there something you're not telling me?" Phoebe didn't answer. "Phoebe, why do we need wraith essence?"

Phoebe looked up from her work to look at her sister. There was no getting past that apprehensive gaze. It was like having a stare-down with a stone. "I, uh… I had a premonition last night."

"Yeah, and?"

"Do you remember when I was carrying the spawn of The Source?" Phoebe could see Piper try to suppress a shudder. Both were dreading what was coming next. "Well, it survived and fed on demonic powers until it could gain a new body. It's The Heir."

This time Piper did drop the crystal which fell to the floor with a clatter. "Are you telling me that the Source of all Evil is back and that he's after the boys?"

"Not completely. He doesn't have all of his power back yet. We might still have a chance if—" Piper made a cut-off motion as they both heard bare footsteps making their way up the stairs. "—if we get to the grocery store right now before they run out. Hey sweetie." Phoebe turned to see Zack trudging through the door to the attic, still in the oversized pajamas she had loaned him. She'd gotten quite good at feigning a casual attitude over the years, no matter the circumstances. "Sleep good?"

"Not really." Zack sighed. Phoebe almost chuckled. He sure could've fooled her with all his snoring. Instead she tried to sound sympathetic -- not especially difficult since she had come to care for the boys over their time together.

"What's the matter?"

"I'm worried about Cody." He admitted. "He's been shut up with the book all morning."

"Oh that's normal, honey." Piper assured him.

"Yeah," Phoebe agreed, "this life can be pretty tough, and we all have our own way of dealing with it… well, except for Piper. Piper just worries."

Piper glowered at Phoebe's remark.

"But he won't even talk to me. He always tells me about his problems. I didn't think keeping Max's secret would make him so mad at me." The sisters could tell he was biting his lip, trying not to cry. Phoebe crossed the room to put her arms around him. He came up to her chest. Phoebe was surprised to find that he didn't even try to feel her up. He must be upset.

"It's okay, sweetie. He'll come around."

Piper rose from her kneeling position, surprised at how sore kneeling all night could make her legs. "I'll go talk to him. Zack, why don't you go with Phoebe to the kitchen. I'm sure she could use some help with the potion." She made a zip-the-lip gesture to her sister before making her way down the stairs to Wyatt's nursery where Cody had slept.

As Cody was sitting on a stool by the little table in the nursery, flipping through the pages of the Book of Shadows, one of the entries caught his interest.

NATALIA: A powerful upper-level demon sorceress of unknown origins. Extremely powerful magically, physically, and mentally. Centuries ago she forged an alliance with the Vampire Queen to overthrow The Source, leaving the Underworld in disarray. Has a network of contacts on both sides. She has been known to match the Power of Three, stroke for stroke. Seems obsessed with the Halliwell family history. Very few generations of Halliwell have escaped at least one encounter with her. She is a dangerous and cunning demonic soldier of fortune that should be avoided at all costs.

Cody felt a shiver run down his spine. Even in illustration, Natalia's amethyst eyes seemed to dig into his mind, smiling like she knew all his dirty little secrets. He hated her with every fiber of his being, maybe even more than The Heir. Her very existence seemed hell-bent on screwing his life up. He flipped the page furiously, trying to erase her from his mind.

He finally found a spell that looked worth his time; The Instant Karma Spell. He almost smiled at the thought of using it on Nat, wondering just how much bad karma the sorceress had managed to accumulate over the ages. He knew he probably shouldn't place as much blame on her as he was. She had only told him the truth, whether he'd wanted to hear it or not. It was all very confusing trying to decide who he was angry with.

He looked away from the pages momentarily to notice Wyatt. The toddler had just woken up, and was staring at him from over his crib.

"You're lucky." He told the baby. "There won't be any secrets for you. Your Mom's going to let you grow up knowing all about it, your powers, your destiny, everything. She trusts you." He caught sight of a picture on the end-table by the crib. It was of Prue. She was smiling at him as if she knew something he didn't. "I wish I could be more like you." He mumbled to the picture. "Strong, fearless, solid, you probably had an answer for everything."

"You should give yourself a little more credit." Cody jumped at Piper's voice. He hadn't heard her enter. "She was a lot like you when she was alive. Whenever there was a problem, I always found her with her nose in that book ready to take on the world."

He looked back at the picture. "Do you miss her?"

"Every day." She replied, pulling up another stool to sit by him. She noticed his hair was tied back in a ponytail. She'd come to realize he didn't just tie it back for cooking anymore, but for concentration Prue had done that too.

Piper took note of the spell he was studying. "The Instant Karma spell. Nice choice, but that's a little advanced don't you think?"

"Exactly." Cody returned to scanning the book. "Mom didn't trust me to learn this, so she took my powers without even giving me a chance. So I'm going to learn as much as I can, and there's nothing she can do about it."

Piper put her arm around him. "That's a little harsh."

"You didn't see what I saw."

"You mean what Natalia showed you?" Cody froze, remembering how urgently Piper had instructed him to keep his distance from the sorceress. "Don't worry, I knew she'd get to you eventually. Good or evil, Nat's always been smart. I don't know what she told you—"

"She told me enough." Cody retorted.

Piper continued as if he hadn't spoken. "But I promise you, it wasn't the whole story. I'm sure your mother had a good reason for doing what she did."

"How can you be so sure?" Cody tried to pull away from her.

"Because our mother did the same thing." Cody looked away from the book to look her in the eye for the first time. "She did it to protect us. We were actually much older than you when we got our powers."

"Weren't you mad?"

"A little, but you know what?" If being a witch has taught me anything, it's that everything happens for a reason. Because of what our mother did we weren't as prepared as we might've been, but we got something better. We had a childhood."

Cody looked back down at the book to hide his tears while he processed her words. "I… I can't help it. I'm angry at her. Sometimes I even… I even hate her. I don't want to, but I do. Does that make me… bad?"

Piper pulled him close, allowing him to cry freely into her chest, and stroked her fingers through his shaggy blond hair. "Now you listen. You are not a bad person. I've only known you for a few days, but I can tell you that much. You're a very good person. Anger, sadness, resentment, these are all emotions. They're what set us apart from evil. Whatever you're feeling for your mom are just issues you need to work out with her, and definitely not with Nat. And you need to stop taking it out on Zack and Max. That was Nat's fault, not theirs."

He returned her embrace, wrapping his arms tightly around her. He smiled a little. It felt good to get some of this off his chest, and get a little guidance.

"Thanks Piper." He stopped crying, not wanting her to see him like this. He pulled away to wipe his tears away. That's when he and Piper noticed the pages of the book flipping on their own. "Does it do that a lot?"

"Only when it wants to tell us something." Piper replied as the pages stopped.

"The Final—" Cody began, but Piper quickly silenced him.

"Don't read out loud. You read from the book out loud, it goes from reading to chanting. I learned that the hard way."

"Right, sorry." He apologized, a little abashed. The Heading read, "The Final Prophecy of Melinda Warren." That name… where had he heard it before? He was sure he had. He quickly forgot however when he read the rest.

The Final Prophecy of Melinda Warren

(Shortly after revelation of The Charmed Ones)

When full moon's risen high a shadow will rise,

to blot out the sun and cover the skies.

Thrice hath it risen, thrice hath it died,

but rises again where great powers lie.

Alas it may only fall through grace of heaven,

when Power of Three is cast by seven.

"What does it mean?" Cody asked, hoping Piper would have an answer. Instead she disappointed him.

"I don't know." She kept staring at the page as if it were a time-bomb about to go off.

"Love what you've done with the place." Paige remarked on Natalia's corner of the Underworld. She knew the sorceress had odd taste, but she'd never imagined she preferred living in twelfth century gothic. It wasn't dark and dreary like the rest of the Underworld, but it was sinister in its own light.

"Well, I try." Natalia replied flatly, setting the atlas on the large marble table. Paige was startled to see that she had removed her trench-coat and that her only top was a black leather corset with an open drawstring front. Her arms were adorned with two black leather armbands. She looked like something out of a comic book. Only Nat could've pulled that outfit off.

The demoness flipped the book open to a surprisingly current map of Boston, and pointed to a spot on the page. "That is the Tipton."

"Perfect." Paige answered, gesturing toward one of the shelves along the wall. "Quill." She called, causing one of the plumed quills to orb into her waiting hand. "Could you try a pen next time?" she chided before beginning her search. She marked several areas that surrounded the hotel.

"I still don't know what you're looking for." Natalia queried, leaning over the table.

"If I'm right, then you will… didn't this park used to be a forest?"

"Yes." Natalia replied with steady realization, as Paige marked the fifth spot on the map and began connecting them. "Fire, water, earth, metal, and wood."

"A Nexus." Paige finished her thought. "The Tipton is housing a nexus."

"Rises again where great powers lie." Nat whispered.

"What?"

"Nothing." Natalia replied monotonously. "I think we should get back to the manor and tell your sisters."

"Sure." Paige agreed hesitantly. She wasn't sure what she hated more about working with Nat; the fact that she was a demon, or all the secrets.

Piper and Cody descended into the living room, Piper carrying Wyatt on her hip, and Cody with the Book of Shadows. "Phoebe?" Piper called, prompting her and Zack to leave their potion mixing in the kitchen. Zack looked up to see that Cody was accompanying Piper, and crossed the room to meet him.

"Cody, listen. I'm really sorry about not telling you about Max."

"It's okay." Cody replied. "It wasn't your fault. And I'm sorry about throwing you into the wall."

Zack smiled. "That's okay. It was a pretty wimpy throw anyway."

Cody rolled his eyes and placed the book on the coffee table, still open to the page he and Piper had discovered. "Friends again?"

"The best." Zack answered, extending his hand. He and Cody slapped five and executed the special handshake they had used since they were seven. Piper smiled, glad to see that the boys were on speaking terms again. Phoebe peered at the open page in the Book of Shadows.

"The Final Prophecy of Melinda Warren? Says here she wrote it just before her execution. You think it has something to do with us?" Before Piper could answer, Paige orbed into the room followed closely by Natalia's shadow.

"The Tipton is a Nexus." Paige blurted. Everyone's breath seemed to catch in their throats.

Zack tilted his head to one side. "A what now?

"A place equidistant from the five elements that serves as a concentration for spiritual energy." Cody explained.

Zack furrowed his brows. "A what now?" he repeated.

Cody rolled his eyes and shook his head. "It's a supernatural powerhouse."

"Whoa!" Zack exclaimed. "That's why The Heir wants it?"

"If he gets his hands on its power, we just won't be in danger. We'll be dead." Natalia stated as casually as if she were ordering dinner, earning her a stern look from Piper.

"That's not all." Phoebe interjected. "The book opened itself to this page." They all gathered around to read it.

"What do you think it means?" Paige asked.

"Well, the shadow that died three times, that's got to be The Source." Phoebe answered, not realizing her slip until Piper smacked her arm. "I mean The Heir."

"The Source?!" Cody cried. "Your mortal enemy that you already vanquished, that Source?!"

"Phoebe's ex-husband?" Zack shuddered.

"Wait a minute, The Source is back, and you didn't tell me?!" Paige scolded, smacking both her sister's arms.

Phoebe shrugged at her older sister, who moaned and motioned angrily at her. "Alright, it's already out in the open. You might as well explain."

Phoebe took a breath, trying to find the right words. "I had a premonition last night. The last time we fought The Source, its spirit survived The Seer's destruction, and fed on demonic powers until it could get a new body. It's The Heir."

Phoebe's grim explanation was interrupted by two clusters of orbs dropping into the living room as Leo and Max returned. Max's eyes flickered briefly at Cody, but she quickly looked back to the floor. Cody felt a pang in his stomach. He wanted to apologize, but he knew that now wasn't the time.

"Leo, what did you find out?" Piper asked.

"Nothing good." He frowned. "The Heir had The Grimoire taken back."

"Was there a downpour of bad news in our forecast that I wasn't aware of?" Paige griped.

"The Grimoire?" Phoebe gasped. "But if he has that, he…"

"He can become The Source again." Piper glowered.

"So how do we stop that?" Zack asked.

"You don't, we do." Piper reprimanded. "Trust me; this guy is way out of your league. We've vanquished him three times, and barely escaped with our lives. You two are staying here where it's safe."

The boys were about to argue, but they were interrupted by a harsh voice that didn't belong to anyone in the room. "Nowhere is safe." It growled. They all cast their eyes warily around the room, trying to locate the owner f the voice.

Piper inched towards her husband, scooping her son up. "Leo, get Wyatt out of here." Her husband took the baby, but hesitated. "GO!" Piper cried. Leo orbed out with their son just as twenty swarm-demons shimmered into the room, brandishing fireballs, faces covered, and each one ready for battle.