Oni-Gil: I shall get to the ending when it gets here! Patience, young Padawan!

Patricia L. Bryans: I love how you imagine the demons…though, that is not quite how I see them. They're evil pieces of stuff I can't say online and I love writing about them! The fun parts are coming up in a couple of chapters!

chuckles1414: Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoy this story! I like writing it!

-16-

"Potion's done!" Prue announced happily, tossing the last pigs foot into the already-full cauldron over the stove, causing the entire contents to eject a puff of putrid-smelling smoke.

Piper, who had been trying to read the Book of Shadows for ingredients as her sister mad the potion, coughed and stumbled across to the kitchen window, thrusting it open and waving the smoke outside frantically. "Thanks for the proclamation and the warning, Prue. Are you sure everything is in there?" She asked for the third time, sticking her head out the window for a breath of fresh air.

"Positive," Prue replied, ladleing portions of the potion into small bottles and corking them snugly. "I checked four times. Don't worry so much. How's Paige's potion coming?"

"For a beginner it's really good," Piper replied, crossing back to her eldest sister and peering over her shoulder at the potion with an expression of disgust and admiration on her face. "She really does have the Halliwell blood in her."

Prue leaned on her hand, which was resting on the counter and looked at Piper, saying, "I hope she's a fast learner. We need her powers, especially her orbing. How is she going to track the Millers if they're in the Underworld, anyway?" She asked.

"It is possible," Piper reminded her, gathering bottles and stowing them all in a shoulder bag. "Leo can do it, and Paige is half-whitelighter. But I hope that 'half' part of her actually is able to sense."

"Why can't Lucy?"

"She's not part whitelighter."

Prue was puzzled. "Then how-"

"-does she orb?" Piper completed Prue's sentence with raised eye brow and a look of the same confusion. "Your guess is as good as mine. There has to be someone in her ancestry who has whitelighter blood. Couldn't her mother orb?"

Shrugging, Prue said, "I don't know. I don't know much about the Miller line. In all the stories Grams told us she could. But Grams could really stretch the truth sometimes," she added, as Piper raised an eyebrow.

Piper helped her sister gather the bottles of potions into a handbag. "Well, if neither of them can sense them, we might be screwed. But Paige still doesn't know the limits to her powers."

"Yeah, well, I just hope she can get them down enough to keep us safe-" But as Prue spoke, the bag with the potions suddenly dissolved into white lights and disappeared from its resting spot on the counter.

Piper grinned at her sister. "I think she's got it down."

Prue smirked at Piper. "Paige," she yelled, fighting back laughter. "I hope you're done with that potion, since you keep messing around with your telekinesis! That's personal gain, by the way!"

The girls jumped as Paige orbed into the kitchen, holding the bag that she had telekinetically called. "The potion is done and bottled, Prue my sweet." Paige answered, patting the bag, happily. "And, I'm practicing," she continued, drawing the last word out with a flourish. "How can it be personal gain when I use my powers to help me master them faster in order to save another family of witches?"

Prue and Piper exchanged sly looks. "She as a point," Piper said to her sister, earning yet another teasing look from Prue.

"And, after all, Phoebe and Lucy are nearly done with the spell, so we're almost ready." Paige stopped talking and looked at the cauldron, her brown eyes staring at it, but not focusing.

Prue tilted her head slightly, concerned. "What's wrong, sweetie?" She asked.

"Nothing," Paige replied, trying and failing to flash a reassuring smile to her eldest sister.

"Are you sure," Piper asked, placing a hand on Paige's shoulder. "You can tell us. You can trust us. We're your sisters and we've gone through what you're going through."

"It's just," Paige paused, figuring out what to say. "It's just, you guys have done this kind of thing before. Ok, a lot. And, well, I'm still a rookie. I don't even know what we're up against. What we're fighting against."

"Do you want to find out?" Prue asked her quietly. Pagie nodded. "Ok. Orb us up to the attic."

Piper coughed. "Uh, Prue?" She looked pointedly at the ceiling before adding, "Personal gain?"

Prue waved her hand, brushing the comment aside. "Oh, Paige is right. She has to learn."

"All of us?" Paige looked uncertain, wondering if she could orb more than herself.

"You're going to have to start practicing, because you'll be orbing four of us to the Underworld if Lucy can't. You can do it. Just focus," Piper told her.

Paige put her arms around Prue and Piper's shoulders, focused her mind on the attic, and orbed. After the odd sensation of being demoleculerized, the attic appeared in front of her almost instantly. Quickly, she looked to either side of her. Prue and Piper were still there holding onto her waist, completely whole. She breathed a sigh of relief. "See?" Prue said. "You can orb more than yourself."

"Sweet," Paige commented, smiling in spite of herself. Piper laughed and detached herself from her sister before crossing to the Book of Shadows. She knew exactly what she was looking for and flipped the yellowed pages gently until she found it.

"This is one of the demons we're up against," Piper said, one hand on the page to hold its place, the other gesturing Paige over. As Paige crossed to the Book, Phoebe, who were sitting at the table completing the spell with Lucy, looked up. The Miller did not. The youngest Charmed One read the description of the Source of All Evil loudly and clearly.

The Source of all Evil can be sensed by demons. He can be hurt by energy balls. Gargoyles can protect buildings from him. His demonic powers include shape shifting (glamouring power), energy balls, zapping, flaming in and out, he can manipulate people's mind or burn with a view and has many more powers.

The Source's face was disfigured in the battle that brought him to power. Only upper level demons have seen it. The Source ruled the underworld for over 500 years. In this time he banished the vampires who tried to sell him to his enemies and killed almost all wizards. He incarcerated the Tall man Demon and Zankou. He can be sensed by other demons.

She finished reading and looked up, terrified, at her sisters and charge, who were all watching her. Phoebe added to Paige's fear as she said, "That's only one of the demons we have to face. Zoltof is much stronger than the Source, or that's what it seems like. But even if it means death, we will fight both of them to save the Millers and destroy Evil. We have to stick together to stay alive. Remember, nothing is stronger than love for one another. Stay true to those you care about. Don't worry. We'll keep you safe.""Thanks," Paige responded, looking a touch more reassured. "And I'll do everything I can to keep you all safe."

Prue smiled, though it was a bit hard. "We know you will, sweetie."

"Phoebe?" Lucy spoke for the first time since they had orbed into the room. She stood and held the sheet of paper the two of them had been working on towards her. "It's done." She averted her eyes as the others looked at her. She had been quiet and withdrawn ever since Phoebe had told them about her premonition. Her sisters were fighting death while she was safe and under the protection of the most powerful witches in the world. Despite being comforted and consoled by the other witches, Lucy still couldn't help feeling guilty about her being safe. She wanted, more than anything, to be with her sisters right now, even if it meant shuddering and dying with them. At last she would be with them. Lucy jumped as a hand touched her shoulder.

"Lucy?" It was Prue.

"Lucy shook her head. "It's nothing," she told her, but Prue could see right though the young woman.

"You have to believe in their strength, Lucy," Prue told her gently. "They will survive. They have each other. They have you to stay alive for. You have us. We can help you and we will help you. You just have to believe. Stay strong, Lucy. Stay strong for your sisters."

Piper had come up behind the two, waiting until Prue had finished speaking before saying quietly, "We're ready when you are." Her hands went to their shoulders and tightened slightly, expressing her slight unease. Something wasn't right. Something was wrong or will be wrong, she knew it. No, she told herself. Don't you start that, Piper Halliwell. Prue would never forgive you if you made a mistake now. Snap out of it and pull yourself together.

Grams and Patty came into the room then. They had left to give Lucy, Phoebe and Pagie some quiet privacy in order for them to concentrate, and now came back, changed from their angelic robes into jeans and shirts leftover from their days in the manor. Patty crossed to the long mirror in the corner and examined herself, turning this way and that, running a hand over her waist. "Well," she exclaimed, examining her slim figure. "I'm surprised these still fit. It's been years since I've worn jeans."

"Over twenty, in fact," Prue commented, quietly, her eyes on her mother. Patty's eyes flickered but she kept silent. She knew that Prue got upset when her death was brought up. In a way, Prue still thought that it had been her own fault, when it was anyone's but.

"Enough, Prue," Grams whispered to her eldest granddaughter when she passed by her shoulder, but said it too quietly so no one else could hear.

Patty stood by Piper, Phoebe, and Lucy, then gestured to her eldest and youngest daughters to come close and clasp hands. "My dears, this is the time. We have vanquishing potions, holding crystals, and the spell to vanquish the Source as well as a spell to take us to the Magicked Ones. Besides that, we have each other. That's all. But it's now or never. The lives of three sisters, three witches, three women, rest in your hands. The entire being of Good and Evil shall be determined after this is all over. This is your destiny. Your legacy. And your time is now. Blessed be, my children." She stepped back, out of the way.

Phoebe knew it was her time to take over. She held the parchment she and Lucy had written on and read the spell scrawled on it in a loud, clear, carrying voice.

Powers of the witches rise,

Course unseen across the skies.

Take us to the ones we seek,

Take us there so we might meet.

Three sisters taken by Evil,

Lead us to where they dwell.

Loved ones we are destined to save,

Hidden in a concealed cave.

Take us there so we might fight,

For Magicked Ones,

This endless night.

A magical breeze suddenly swirled around the room, lifting the hair on each head. As the wind intensified, Lucy squinted into the brightest light she had ever encountered. As the light twirled about them, she tried to clear her mind. Her final thought was of holding tighter to Prue and Phoebe's hands, then everything went black.